Long-term Outcomes of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus, a Retrospective Cohort Study

Objective: Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is defined as glucose intolerance that begins or is first detected during pregnancy. GDM is associated with adverse outcomes in pregnancy and infants. Postpartum outcomes have been introduced in recent studies. In our study, we report long-term complications of GDM.
Methods: In our study, pregnant women between 19 and 35 years old who were diagnosed with GDM for the first time and healthy pregnant were compared. In these patients, we assessed gestational age, type of delivery, birth weight fasting plasma glucose, postprandial plasma glucose, HbA1c, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), urea, creatine, urinalysis and thyroid stimulating hormone, lipid profile, diagnosis and pharmacological agents prescribed between indexed pregnancy and 5th year postpartum screening.
Results: One hundred-fifty two GDM cases and 202 healthy pregnant’ data were recruited. We demonstrated that fasting and postprandial plasma glucose, HbA1c, ALT, AST, urea, creatine, urine protein, glucose, ketone, total cholesterol, triglyceride and low-density lipoprotein were significantly higher in pregnant with a history of GDM in the 5th year follow-up. Furthermore, we observed pregnant with GDM were diagnosed significantly higher with diabetes mellitus, hypertension, obesity, hyperlipidemia, coronary hearth diseases, angina, cerebrovascular disease in follow-up. These post-GDM patients were also found most probably using anti-diabetic, anti-hypertensive, anti-lipidemic, and anti-platelet agents.
Conclusion: Women with a history of GDM are at increased risk of diabetes and related diseases. Postpartum GDM follow-ups should include ALT, AST, urea, creatine, urine analysis in addition to well-documented tests as fasting glucose, postprandial glucose, HbA1c and lipid screenings.