Endocrine Abstracts

Background-aim: Increased serum cholesterol and triglycerides levels may have a role in the development of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and its complications. This study was designed in order to provide a description of lipids profile by gestational age during pregnancy.

Subjects and methods: We studied 211 women from the outpatient clinic of metabolic disorders in pregnancy. These women were ordered to perform the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) with 75 g of glucose, between 26th and 28th weeks of pregnancy. In 14 (6.64%) women, GDM (two or three values above normal) was diagnosed, in 28 (13.27%) impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) (only one abnormal glucose value) was the diagnosis and 169 (80.1%) women had normal OGTT results (controls). All women had lipid profile assessment, which included determination of total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), and triglycerides (TGs). An additional lipids test was obtained within 32nd and 33rd gestational weeks.

Results: Mean values±S.D. of lipids are presented in the following table:

There was no statistical difference (P<0.05) in TC, HDL and LDL values of the women of three groups in the second trimester, while significant difference was observed in TGs values between controls and the other two groups (P<0.001). Comparison of values between second and third trimester showed significant increase in TC and TG in control group, whereas pregnant women with GDM presented only significant increase in serum levels of TG, greater than that of controls.

Conclusion: It is well known that hyperlipidemia of pregnancy is greater in cases of GDM. Our results show that hypertriglyceridemia is the main lipid disorder in pregnant women with GDM, with a remarkable increase observed between second and third trimester.