RESUMO
AIM: The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between the maternal superior mesenteric artery Doppler, pancreatic size and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). METHODS: Two hundred and fifty-eight consecutive, pregnant women between 20 and 22 weeks of gestation underwent routine fetal anomaly screening. All subjects underwent maternal superior mesenteric artery Doppler and pancreatic size measurement of head, corpus and tail during screening. Screening was done with 50 g glucose challenge test (GCT) at gestational age 24-28 weeks. The patients who were having an abnormal GCT were subjected to 100 g GCT. Subjects were divided into two groups such as pregnancies with gestational diabetes and normal pregnancies. Relationship between Doppler and pancreatic measurements with GDM was analyzed. RESULTS: Out of 258 screened pregnancies, 28 (10.9 %) were diagnosed as GDM. There were significant differences between GDM positive and negative cases in terms of pancreatic body size (17.5 vs. 14.4 mm, p = 0.05), superior mesenteric artery Doppler systolic/diastolic ratio (S/D) (4.2 vs. 3.4) and resistance index (RI) (0.72 vs. 0.68) values. Superior mesenteric artery Doppler S/D (AUC = 0.761, p < 0.001) and RI (AUC = 0.762, p < 0.001) indices were significant predictors for GDM. CONCLUSION: Superior mesenteric artery Doppler and pancreatic size evaluation may be utilized to detect abnormal glucose metabolism during pregnancy care.