Blood sugar observations in late pregnancy complicated by hyperthyroidism.

Abstract

In a comprehensive review of the literature by Rowley 1 concerning the blood sugar figures in pregnancy, the average figures show that there is no appreciable difference from the normal. It is estimated that the blood sugar throughout pregnancy varies from .07 per cent to .11 per cent. Contrary to these facts, Faber 2 recently reported low blood sugar values in late pregnancy, with a lowered renal threshold, a case whose fasting blood sugar was .052 per cent, and whose blood sugar rose with a sugar tolerance test to .15 per cent, with glycosuria and with a subsequent drop of blood sugar to .05 per cent.

I have been observing a case of pregnancy complicated with a moderate hyperthyroidism, with rather unusual blood sugar findings. The patient entered the Barnes Hospital on October 26, 1925, and was discharged on November 30th. She was re-admitted on December 13th and stayed in the hospital ten days. She was again admitted on January 21, 1926, and is in the hospital at the present time. Her basal metabolic rate on the first admission was 30 per cent plus. With rest in bed, at the end of the first hospital stay it was reduced to 17 1/2 per cent plus. During her second admission in December her basal metabolic rate was 29 per cent plus. When she returned in January her basal metabolic rate was 73 per cent plus and on repeating these determinations several times during the present hospital stay it varied between 65 per cent plus and 73 per cent plus. In October the patient weighed 50 kilos and on March 3rd she weighed 58 kilos. She was at term March 2nd and as yet has not delivered.