Cullen sign

  bluish discoloration around the umbilicus sometimes associated with intraperitoneal hemorrhage, especially after rupture of the uterine tube in ectopic pregnancy; similar discoloration occurs in acute hemorrhagic pancreatitis.

Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM)

Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM) is a condition in which women without previously diagnosed diabetes exhibit high blood glucose levels during pregnancy.

Signs and Symptoms:

• Gestational diabetes generally has few symptoms
•  is most commonly diagnosed by  blood glucose tolerance test during pregnancy.
• Diagnostic tests detect inappropriately high levels of   glucose in the blood.
• Gestational diabetes affects 3-10% of pregnancies, depending on the population studied.

Etiology:

• No specific cause has been identified
• It is believed that the hormones produced during pregnancy increase the body’s resistance to insulin, resulting in impaired glucose tolerance.

Risk factors:

• a previous diagnosis of gestational diabetes or prediabetes
• impaired glucose tolerance
• Family history of a first degree relative with type 2 diabetes
• maternal age – a woman’s risk factor increases as she gets older (especially for women over 35 years of age)
• ethnic background (those with higher risk factors include African-Americans, Afro-Caribbeans, Native Peoples, Hispanics
• severe obesity
• a previous pregnancy which resulted in a child with a high birth weight (8 lbs 12.8 oz and over)

Treatment:

• regular excercise
• diet (containing a variety of foods, distributing calories and carbohydrates evenly throughout the day, three small-to-moderate-sized meals with two to four snacks every day is recommended)
• blood glucose monitoring and insulin injections if needed

Gestational Diabetes usually resolves within hours of the placenta being delivered or within 1-2 days postpartum

Martin, Glenn and Porth, Carol, Mattson. 2009. Pathophysiology Concepts of Altered Health States. 8th ed. Lippincott Williams and Wilkins. Philadelphia