Objectives: Glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) is the most commonly used glycemic index among diabetic patients. The present study sought to investigate the relationship between HbA1c and lipid parameters among healthy pregnancies and gestational diabetic cases. Materials and Methods: Seventy-five Saudi pregnant women within the age group of 19 to 43 years were selected for this crosssectional study. The participants were categorized into with and without gestational diabetes (GDM), all of whom were non-smokers; in addition, they neither had a previous history of chronic illnesses nor were they on any medications which could alter lipid profile and HbA1c concentrations. Totally, 75 g of oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) was utilized to identify 25 women with GDM. All biochemical tests including HbA1c, fasting blood sugar (FBG), total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein (LDL-cholesterol), triglycerides (TG), and high-density lipoprotein (HDL-cholesterol) were performed by a biochemical auto-analyzer. The collected data were statistically analyzed using a paired student’s t test. The P values of <0.05 were considered statistically significant on all the analyses related to healthy pregnancies and those associated with GDM. Results: The HbA1c and FBG values demonstrated significant correlation with GDM (P<0.001 each). However, TC, LDL-cholesterol, and TG failed to indicate any significant difference between the 2 groups. Conversely, HDL-cholesterol and the ratio of TG and HDLcholesterol revealed remarkable differences between GDM and healthy participants (P<0.05 each). Conclusions: In general, the blood levels of glucose, HbA1c, TG, and HDL-cholesterol are of paramount significance in GDM. Predictably, HbA1c can be employed as one of the markers in evaluating the risk factors in developing dyslipidemia among pregnant women.

Objectives: The purpose of the current work is to evaluate D-dimer plasma level among both normal and complicated pregnancies such as gestational diabetes (GD) and hypertension (GH) among Saudi females. It is also focused on exhibiting any possible factors that could also play a role in rising D-dimer levels besides the age of the pregnant woman and the period of gestation. Materials and Methods: A semi-quantitative latex agglutination assay was performed in the blood sample of healthy non-pregnant, pregnant and pregnant females with GD and GH. Results: The results exhibited that 92% of pregnancies with GH and 90% of multiple pregnancies had high D-dimer levels. The analysis of the effect of age of pregnant women on D-dimer concentrations presented that 100% of pregnant women with GD, GH or multiple pregnancies aged above 40, had high levels of D-dimer. The results of the relationship between gestational age of pregnancies and D-dimer showed that by reaching the third trimester, about 66.6% of women who had multiple pregnancies had D-dimer concentration above 2000 ng/mL. Interestingly, all the pregnant females with GH had D-dimer concentrations above 2000 ng/mL. Conclusions: This study postulated that the concentrations of D-dimer significantly increase during pregnancy associated with common complications such as GD and GH. It is the first study to demonstrate the possible risk factors during pregnancy, which include age, number of pregnancies, gestational age and pregnancies with GD and GH, especially among Saudi Arabian women.