DOI: https://doi.org/10.36347/sjmcr.2025.v13i02.017

Pages: 290-294

Background: There is a rising trend of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) in our environment and it is a major cause of complications in pregnancy, delivery, and puerperium. Fetal complications of GDM are prematurity, fetal macrosomia, hypoglycemia, respiratory distress syndrome etc. Glycated albumin (GA) is a biomarker for hyperglycemic states, and unlike the oral glucose tolerance test, it does not require patient preparation, intake of glucose, or multiple sample collection. Black women have been shown to have a higher GA level than Caucasian women. Objectives: This study determined the association between glycated albumin and fetal outcomes among pregnant women attending the antenatal clinic at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital. Methodology: The research work was a longitudinal study at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital from the 15th February 2021 to the 10th March 2023. Two hundred pregnant women between 34 to 38 weeks gestation were selected by simple random sampling method. The diagnosis of gestational diabetes mellitus was made using the World Health Organisation 2016 diagnostic criteria. Fetal outcome studied were prematurity (delivery before 37 completed weeks of gestation), fetal macrosomia (birth weight of ≥4.0kg at delivery), and fetal hypoglycemia (cord blood glucose of ≤3.0mmol/L). All data were analyzed with Statistical Product and Services Solutions version 25.0. The test of significant association between GA levels and fetal outcome was done using the student’s T-test the statistical significance was at p ˂0.05 at 95% confidence interval. Results: More than half of the women were obese. Prematurity was seen in 6.7% of cases, macrosomia in 10.1% of cases and neonatal hypoglycemia in 5.1% of cases. Glycated albumin was only significantly associated with fetal macrosomia (p=0.012; 95% CI 0.3 ̶ 3.1). Conclusion: Elevated glycated albumin at 34 to 36 weeks of gestation is significantly associated with fetal macrosomia.