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Neonatal hypoglycemia screening practices in infants born to mothers without glucose tolerance testing

Journal of Perinatology (2025)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Objective

This study describes neonatal hypoglycemia (NH) screening for infants born to mothers without adequate oral glucose tolerance testing (OGTT).

Study design

In this single-center, retrospective study, authors reviewed live births of term and late-preterm infants at a single military hospital from 2014 to 2021. All mothers without adequate OGTT were identified. Charts were evaluated to assess NH screening practices for infants.

Results

Out of 13,338 deliveries, 0.98% (131) of infants were born to mothers without adequate OGTT. One hundred and two of these infants had no other indication for NH screening. Sixty-eight percent (69/102) of these infants were screened with at least one point of care (POC) blood glucose measurement and 61.7% (63/102) were screened with at least three POC glucose measurements.

Conclusion

A small percentage of mothers in this population didn’t receive adequate OGTT. Sixty-eight percent of the infants born to these mothers were screened for NH.

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Fig. 1: Data Selection.
Fig. 2: Infant Evaluation by Reason for Incomplete Test Among Infants With No Other Reason for Screening.
Fig. 3: Percentage of Infants with One or More Hypoglycemic Episodes by Reason for Incomplete Testing.

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Data availability

Data will be made available promptly upon request.

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Author information

Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Jenna Scholl, Adharsh Ponnapakkam.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatrics, Brooke Army Medical Center, San Antonio, TX, USA

    Jenna Scholl, Adharsh Ponnapakkam & Jeanne Krick

  2. Department of Pediatrics, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD, USA

    Adharsh Ponnapakkam, Jeanne Krick & Caitlin Drumm

  3. Department of Gynecologic Surgery and Obstetrics, Brooke Army Medical Center, San Antonio, TX, USA

    Ruben Molina & Jessica Gottula

Authors
  1. Jenna Scholl
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  2. Adharsh Ponnapakkam
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  3. Ruben Molina
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  4. Jessica Gottula
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  5. Jeanne Krick
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  6. Caitlin Drumm
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Contributions

JS and AP contributed equally to this work and are co–first authors. JS was primarily responsible for conceptualization and drafting of the initial manuscript. AP contributed to study design, conducted the majority of the data analysis, led manuscript revisions, and managed submission for publication. CD conducted the bulk of data acquisition, contributed to data analysis, and played a key role in manuscript editing. JK contributed to study design and conceptualization, and aided manuscript revision. RM and JG provided input into study design, provided critical revisions, and gave editorial feedback throughout the writing process. All authors reviewed and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Adharsh Ponnapakkam.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

IRB approval was obtained for this study (IRB #C.2023.031e), and the institutional IRB waived the need for informed consent. This study was performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

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Scholl, J., Ponnapakkam, A., Molina, R. et al. Neonatal hypoglycemia screening practices in infants born to mothers without glucose tolerance testing. J Perinatol (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41372-025-02455-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41372-025-02455-2

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