Publication:

Cardiovascular malformations in infants of diabetic mothers: a retrospective study

Background Despite improvements in medical care provided during pregnancy to diabetic mothers, the cardiac complications in their infants are still more frequent than in infants of general population.

Methods A retrospective case-control study was performed between the years 2017-2018 on two groups of newborns, recording details of outcome of live born babies born to diabetic and non-diabetic mothers.

Results Data were extracted from medical records, and the descriptive and analytical statistics of this information was duly applied. in a total of 50 studied infants, 40 cases (80%) of cardiovascular anomalies have been diagnosed. Most of the cardiac anomaly was hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. The incidence of cardiovascular anomalies in infants of diabetic mothers is significantly higher than the infants of non-diabetic mothers (P=0.002). The type of maternal diabetes (diabetes mellitus, overt or gestational diabetes) did not bring about any significant difference in the incidence of cardiac malformations in infants (P=0.406).

Conclusions The incidence of cardiovascular anomalies in infants of diabetic mothers is significantly higher than the infants of non-diabetic mothers. Many of the infants were asymptomatic and therefore clinical examination and follow up in infants of diabetic mothers is important.