Women who have gestational diabetes (DMG) during pregnancy have a greater risk than usual to develop type 2 diabetes, ischemic hypertension and heart disease in the future, according to a retrospective cohort study published this week in PLOS Medicine by Krishnarajah NiRantharakumar,from the University of Birmingham, the United Kingdom, and colleagues.
DMG rates are increasing in most developed countries and previous research has found that women diagnosed with DMG have a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes throughout life.In the new work, the authors studied the incidence of type 2 diabetes, ischemic hypertension and heart disease and cerebrovascular diseases in a United Kingdom primary care database that included more than 9,000 women diagnosed with DMG between 1990 and 2016.
Women diagnosed with DMG recorded more than 20 times more likely to be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes later in life, more than twice and a half more likely to develop ischemic heart disease and almost double probabilities of developing hypertension.
Blood pressure
Although current guidelines recommend the annual detection of diabetes in women diagnosed with DMG, the study found that diabetes monitoring evaluation and cardiovascular risk factors was low, with the exception of blood pressure;Less than 60 percent of women were evaluated during the first postpartum year and rates decreased thereafter.
"The findings add an important vision of the trajectory of the development of type 2 diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease in periods early and posterior," say the authors of the study.