Glucose screening in pregnancy and future risk of cardiovascular disease in women: a retrospective, population-based cohort study

Publication date: Available online 27 March 2019Source: The Lancet Diabetes & EndocrinologyAuthor(s): Ravi Retnakaran, Baiju R ShahSummaryBackgroundIn studies to date, gestational diabetes has consistently been associated with an increased future risk of cardiovascular disease, irrespective of the antepartum screening protocol or diagnostic criteria by which gestational diabetes is diagnosed. We reasoned that the resultant heterogeneity in the severity of dysglycaemia in women with gestational diabetes suggests that the relationship between gestational glycaemia and subsequent cardiovascular disease probably extends into the non-diagnostic range. Thus, we hypothesised that glucose screening in pregnancy would identify future risk of cardiovascular disease in women who did not have gestational diabetes.MethodsWe did a population-based cohort study using information from health-care administrative databases from the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care of Ontario (Canada). We identified all women in Ontario who had a 50 g oral glucose challenge test in pregnancy between 24 and 28 weeks gestation with a livebirth delivery between July 1, 2007, and Dec 31, 2015. Women who had a history of diabetes before pregnancy or had been previously hospitalised for cardiovascular disease were excluded. Women with a 1-h post-challenge plasma glucose concentration of 11·1 mmol/L or greater were considered to have gestational diabetes, as were women with a reading between 7·8 and 11·0 mmol/...
Source: The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology - Category: Endocrinology Source Type: research