<b>BACKGROUND:</b> Women who develop GDM
have an elevated lifetime risk of cardiovascular disease, which has been
attributed to an adverse cardiovascular risk factor profile that is apparent
even within the first year postpartum. <a>Given its presence
in the early postpartum, we hypothesized that this adverse cardiovascular risk
factor profile may develop over time in the years prior to pregnancy. </a> <b><br>
METHODS:</b> With population-based administrative databases, we identified all nulliparous
women in Ontario, Canada, who had singleton pregnancies between January/2011 and
December/2016 and ≥2 measurements of the following analytes between 2007 and the
start of pregnancy: A1c, fasting glucose, random glucose, lipids, and
transaminases. This population consisted of 8,047 women who developed GDM and 93,114
women who did not. <br>
<b>RESULTS:</b> The two most recent pregravid tests were performed at median 0.61
years and 1.86 years before pregnancy, respectively. Women who went on to
develop GDM had higher pregravid A1c, fasting glucose, random glucose, LDL-cholesterol,
triglycerides, and ALT, and lower HDL-cholesterol, than their peers (all
p<0.0001). Notably, in the years before pregnancy, women who went on to
develop GDM had higher annual increases than their peers in A1c (1.9-fold
higher) <a>(difference 0.0089%/year, 95%CI 0.0043 to 0.0135)
</a>and random glucose (4.3-fold); greater annual decrease in HDL-cholesterol
(5.5-fold); and lesser annual decline in LDL-cholesterol (0.4-fold)(all p≤0.0002).
During this time, fasting glucose and triglycerides increased in women who
developed GDM but decreased in their peers (both p<0.0001). <br>
<b>CONCLUSION:</b> <a></a><a>The adverse cardiovascular risk factor
profile of women with GDM evolves over time in the years before </a>pregnancy.
Divergent Trajectories of Cardiovascular Risk factors in the Years before Pregnancy in Women with and without Gestational Diabetes: A Population-based Study
