May 10, 2020
Researcher Nikita Ved is
studying birth defects as a result of diabetes and wants to
increase public awareness of these issues.
She tells listeners
Nikita Ved is a Novo
Nordisk Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Dr. Duncan Sparrow's group
in the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics at the
University of Oxford.
She researches how
diabetes during pregnancy causes birth defects in the embryo,
most commonly heart issues; this includes all forms of
diabetes, from the 2 types of
diabetes more commonly known as well as gestational. She says
that many people don't know that one of the major complications of
diabetes happens during pregnancy. If fact, it can increase the
rate of miscarriage and birth defects by up to
30%.
She explains how difficult it
has been to educate the public about these concerns, perhaps
because the focus of diabetic complications tends to center on
worries about blindness, kidneys, and other neuropathy. Yet she
feels that birth defects should be put on the same level of
awareness.
She describes some of the difficulty involved in these studies but
also some protocols that aren't helping, such as not testing
pregnant women for
diabetes or gestational
diabetes until their 2nd trimester while birth defects happen very early
in the pregnancy. She advocates for screening for and educating
patients about the 2 types of
diabetes as they undergo regular gynecological checkups well
before they are pregnant.
For more and for contact information, see her web page at the lab: https://www.dpag.ox.ac.uk/team/nikita-ved