# Measuring Early Pregnancy Glycemia and Its Impact on Adverse Outcomes

> **NIH NIH U01** · MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL · 2022 · $103,389

## Abstract

Hyperglycemia in pregnancy has numerous well-established complications including fetal overgrowth and its
attendant risks of cesarean delivery, birth trauma, shoulder dystocia, neonatal hypoglycemia, and childhood
obesity, among others. Available evidence suggests that the development of these sequelae begins in early
pregnancy, months prior to conventional diagnosis of gestational diabetes mellitus. Despite this, there are no
widely accepted diagnostic criteria for hyperglycemia in early pregnancy. This is due, in part, to major
limitations of the tools employed for glycemic measurements in pregnancy; pregnant women have not yet fully
benefitted from advances accrued over the past four decades in glycemic assessment using continuous
glucose monitoring (CGM) and glycated markers (such as hemoglobin A1c). Accurate assessments of
glycemia using these tools would allow not only for the investigation of the relationship between early
pregnancy glycemia and adverse outcomes, but also for the identification of extra-glycemic factors that
modulate the risk of these outcomes in women with early pregnancy hyperglycemia. We propose to use our
established infrastructure for recruitment of ethnically-diverse pregnant women in the first trimester to conduct
a longitudinal observational cohort study of glycemia in pregnancy at two sites in Boston, Massachusetts (5000
deliveries/year combined) as part of a multicenter Consortium in collaboration with the NIDDK. Our team of
investigators, expert in gestational glucose metabolism, glycated protein assays, CGM, and perinatal
genomics, brings decades of experience collaborating in multicenter studies with highly successful recruitment
and long-term retention. Among pregnant participants without pre-existing diabetes enrolled in the first
trimester, we will perform serial glycemic assessment using oral glucose tolerance tests, CGM, and glycated
markers across gestation. We will follow participants through delivery to ascertain maternal and neonatal
outcomes. These investigations will help to establish a new standard of care for diagnosis of early pregnancy
hyperglycemia.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10479205
- **Project number:** 3U01DK123795-03S1
- **Recipient organization:** MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL
- **Principal Investigator:** Camille Elise Powe
- **Activity code:** U01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $103,389
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2019-09-20 → 2025-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10479205

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10479205, Measuring Early Pregnancy Glycemia and Its Impact on Adverse Outcomes (3U01DK123795-03S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10479205. Licensed CC0.

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