To the editor—In an unworthy parroting of an assertion by Moley and colleagues1, placed prominently on the first contents page [and highlighted on the cover, no less...Ed.] of the December issue, we read that "diabetes in early pregnancy is associated with a high risk of miscarriages...."
Twelve years ago I tried to put this erroneous notion to rest2. Your report was picked up by Lancet3, where it might lead to diabetic women being needlessly terrified. Furthermore, the inference by Moley et al., thoughtlessly repeated on your contents page, that their findings regarding blastocyst–stage embryos might be relevant to fetal maldevelopment, is also nonsensical4.
It is amazing that in our age of instantaneous and exhaustive retrieval of medical literature there should be the bibliographic laxity frequently encountered, seemingly greater than in the past, for reasons better left to editors to ponder.
See “Reply to 'Diabetes and the risk of miscarriage'“ by Moley et al.
References
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Kalter, H. Diabetes and spontaneous abortion: a historical review. Am. J. Obst. Gyn. 156, 1243–1253 (1987).
McCarthy, M. Hyperglycaemia triggers embryonic programmed cell death. Lancet 352, 1911 (1998).
Kalter, H. Reproductive toxicology in animals with induced and spontaneous diabetes. Reprod. Toxicol. 10, 417– 438 (1996).
Mills, J.L. et al. Incidence of spontaneous abortion among normal women and insulin–dependent diabetic women whose pregnancies were identified within 21 days of conception. N. Engl. J. Med. 319, 1617– 1623 (1988).
Sutherland, H.W. & Pritchard, C.W. Increased incidence of spontaneous abortion in pregnancies complicated by maternal diabetes mellitus. Am. J. Obstet. Gynecol. 156, 135–138 (1987).
Moley, K.H., Diamond, M.P., Vaughn, W.K. & DeCherney, A.K. Effect of diabetes mellitus on mouse pre–implantation embryo development. J. Reprod. Fertil. 93, 325– 332 (1991).
Polifka, J.E., Rutledge, J.C., Kimmel, G.L., Dellarco, V. & Generoso, W. M. Exposure to ethylene oxide during the early zygotic period induces skeletal anomalies in mouse fetuses. Teratology 53, 1–9 (1996).
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Kalter, H. Diabetes and the risk of miscarriage. Nat Med 5, 126 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/5474
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/5474
