Sirico A, Lanzone A, Mappa I, et al. - Researchers sought to estimate the strength of association of first-trimester fetal heart rate (FHR) in predicting the development of gestational diabetes (GDM). They assessed data on maternal age, BMI, cigarette smoking, NT, FHR, CRL, DV-PVI, β-hCG and PAPP-A in 603 singleton non-diabetic pregnant women who underwent a first trimester screening at 11–14 weeks. Of these women, 199 (33%) were subsequently diagnosed with GDM. As per ROC analysis, first-trimester FHR has high predictive value for GDM. When 162 bpm was considered as a threshold, FHR yielded a detection rate of 76.9%, a specificity of 67.1% and a negative predictive value of 85.5% for GDM. In this work, the potential role of first trimester FHR as an early predictor of GDM was demonstrated for the first time ever.