Background: This study aims to investigate the diagnostic value of the glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) test for detecting gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) in pregnant Chinese patients. Methods: We enrolled a large cohort of 19,261 pregnant individuals who had both oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) and HbA1c test between 24 and 28 weeks of gestation in a large Chinese tertiary hospital consecutively from 2013 to 2018. We used Pearson’s correlation test to evaluate the correlation between OGTT and HbA1c. The diagnostic accuracy of HbA1c for GDM was examined with the receiver operating characteristic curve, using OGTT as the reference standard. Results: A total of 3,547 (18.42%) women were diagnosed with GDM. HbA1c was positively, but only weakly correlated with the fasting, 1-hour glucose, and 2-hour glucose (r=0.31, 0.24, and 0.25, respectively, all P<0.001). The area under the curve of the HbA1c level for detecting GDM was 0.664 (95% CI: 0.653–0.674, P<0.01). The optimal cut-off point of HbA1c for GDM diagnosis was determined at 5.0% (31 mmol/mol), which yielded a sensitivity of 60.1%, a specificity of 65.3%, a positive predictive value of 28.1%, and a negative predictive value of 87.9%. Conclusions: HbA1c test is weakly correlated with OGTT during pregnancy, and it offers only limited value in diagnosing GDM among Chinese pregnant individuals.

Objective: To explore the effects of insulin resistance (IR) on embryo quality and pregnancy outcomes in women with or without polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF)/intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI).Methods: A retrospective cohort study concerning patients with/without PCOS who received gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH)-antagonist protocol for IVF/ICSI from January 2019 to July 2022 was conducted. All the patients included underwent oral glucose tolerance test plus the assessment of insulin release within 6 months before the controlled ovarian stimulation. The Matsuda Index was calculated to diagnose IR. Two populations (PCOS and non-PCOS) were included and each was divided into IR and non-IR groups and analyzed respectively. The primary outcome was the high-quality day 3 embryo rate.Results: A total of 895 patients were included (751 with PCOS and 144 without PCOS). For patients with PCOS, the IR group had a lower high-quality day 3 embryo rate (36.8% vs. 39.7%, p=0.005) and available day 3 embryo rate (67.2% vs. 70.6%, p<0.001). For patients without PCOS, there was no significant difference between the IR and non-IR groups in high-quality day 3 embryo rate (p=0.414) and available day 3 embryo rate (p=0.560). There was no significant difference in blastocyst outcomes and pregnancy outcomes for both populations.Conclusion: Based on the diagnosis by the Matsuda Index, IR may adversely affect the day 3 embryo quality in patients with PCOS but not pregnancy outcomes. In women without PCOS, IR alone seems to have less significant adverse effects on embryo quality than in patients with PCOS. Better-designed studies are still needed to compare the differences statistically between PCOS and non-PCOS populations.

Original Article Ovarian protection and safety of gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist after cervical cancer surgery: systematic review and meta-analysis Jialing Yuan, Yi Lai, Tao Li