Follow-up of women with a history of gestational diabetes in Italy: Are we missing an opportunity for primary prevention of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease?

Type 2 diabetes metabolomics score and risk of progression to type 2 diabetes among women with a history of gestational diabetes mellitus

BACKGROUND

Several metabolites are individually related to incident type 2 diabetes (T2D) risk. We prospectively evaluated a novel T2D-metabolite pattern with a risk of progression to T2D among high-risk women with a history of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM).

METHODS

The longitudinal Nurses' Health Study II cohort enroled 116,429 women in 1989 and collected blood samples from 1996 to 1999. We profiled plasma metabolites in 175 incident T2D cases and 175 age-matched controls, all with a history of GDM before the blood draw. We derived a metabolomics score from 21 metabolites previously associated with incident T2D in the published literature by scoring according to the participants' quintile (1-5 points) of each metabolite. We modelled the T2D metabolomics score categorically in quartiles and continuously per 1 standard deviation (SD) with the risk of incident T2D using conditional logistic regression models adjusting for body mass index at the blood draw, and other established T2D risk factors.

RESULTS

The percentage of women progressing to T2D ranged from 10% in the bottom T2D metabolomics score quartile to 78% in the highest score quartile. Adjusting for established T2D risk factors, women in the highest quartile had more than a 20-fold greater diabetes risk than women in the lowest quartile (odds ratios [OR] = 23.1 [95% CI = 8.6, 62.1]; p for trend<0.001). The continuous T2D metabolomics score was strongly and positively associated with incident T2D (adjusted OR = 2.7 per SD [95% CI = 1.9, 3.7], p < 0.0001).

CONCLUSIONS

A pattern of plasma metabolites among high-risk women is associated with a markedly elevated risk of progression to T2D later in life.

Commentary from the Italian Association of Medical Diabetologists (AMD) and Italian Society of Diabetology (SID) Interassociative Diabetes and Pregnancy Study Group on the screening and diagnostic methods for gestational diabetes: An open debate

The current board of the interassociative Italian association of medical diabetologists (AMD)/Italian society of diabetology (SID) Diabetes and Pregnancy Italian Study Group commented about two recent papers published in the New England Journal of Medicine that investigated the screening and diagnostic methods for gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). It is well recognized that effective screening and accurate, early diagnosis of GDM contributes to better management of these women in order to reduce adverse maternal and fetal/neonatal outcomes. However, there is worldwide controversy concerning which screening (selective or universal; one step or two steps) and which diagnostic criteria (glucose thresholds) are appropriate. The main findings of these papers are discussed along with their implications for the management of pregnant women.