OBJECTIVETo evaluate the usefulness of a fasting plasma glucose (FPG) at 24–28 weeks’ gestation to screen for gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM).RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODSThe medical records and results of a 75-g 2-h oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) of 24,854 pregnant women without known pre-GDM attending prenatal clinics in 15 hospitals in China were examined.RESULTSFPG cutoff value of 5.1 mmol/L identified 3,149 (12.1%) pregnant women with GDM. FPG cutoff value of 4.4 mmol/L ruled out GDM in 15,369 (38.2%) women. With use of this cutoff point, 12.2% of patients with mild GDM will be missed. The positive predictive value is 0.322, and the negative predictive value is 0.928.CONCLUSIONSFPG at 24–28 weeks’ gestation could be used as a screening test to identify GDM patients in low-resource regions. Women with an FPG between ≥4.4 and ≤5.0 mmol/L would require a 75-g OGTT to diagnose GDM. This would help to avoid approximately one-half (50.3%) of the formal 75-g OGTTs in China.

BackgroundIn caesarean section patients, the spontaneous rupture of the posterior wall of the uterus is extremely rare, with nonspecific signs and symptoms being present. Perinatal and maternal morbidity and mortality are high.Case presentationA 28-year-old woman at 36 + 6 weeks of gestation presented with mild uterine contractions and developed a sudden abdominal distension. An emergency laparotomy was performed, and the posterior wall of the uterus had ruptured. A baby boy was born.ConclusionSilent uterine rupture is very rare and easy to ignore due to nonspecific clinical symptoms, unexplained haemoglobin reduction and haemoperitoneum, but these features caution us to more closely consider uterine rupture in patients.

In order to visualize pronunciation teaching and explore the law of articulation evolution in TCFL (Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language), we proposed an approach to design a physiology Mandarin speech corpus for the international preparatory students in China. Preparatory students are usually beginners to learn Mandarin, so they are selected as testers to gain the most real law of Mandarin articulation evolution. The corpus was different from an ordinary speech corpus. It consisted of not only text information (such as age, gender, nationality, mother language, Mandarin learning experience, etc.) and audio information, but also the physiological data (such as speech organs’ moving morphology). When the corpus was constructed, data were gathered by a supersonic collecting system because of its safety and low cost. In the initial experiment, 21 initial consonants, 36 simple or compound vowels and tones were tested. The results showed the corpus was significant in Mandarin teaching.