Brittle diabetes in pregnancy

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Abstract
In 8 [human] brittle diabetics the insulin requirement increased during successful pregnancies from 35 to 64 U/day (in 29 stable severe diabetics from 53 to 78 U/day). The within-day glycemic excursions were calculated as the mean of the 3 differences between 4 time points: fasting, 1 h after breakfast, 2 h after breakfast, and 2 h after lunch. This parameter was constant throughout the pregnancy in nondiabetics (34-46 mg/100 ml) and stable severe diabetics (55-72 mg/100 ml). In brittle diabetics it dropped from 147 mg/100 ml before the pregnancy and 153 mg/100 ml at 8 wk to 85 mg/100 ml at 36 wk. The between-day variability was calculated at the mean glycemic difference between 2 successive days at the 4 points of time noted above. It was very low in nondiabetics (12-16 mg/100 ml) and much higher in stable diabetics (49-53 mg/100 ml) In brittle diabetics it decreased from 127 mg/100 ml before pregnancy and 120 mg/100 ml at 8 wk to 46-55 mg/100 ml at 24-36 wk. This shows that brittleness substantially decreased in the 2nd half of pregnancy.