Gestational Diabetes Mellitus Alone in the Absence of Subsequent Diabetes Is Associated With Microalbuminuria: Results from the Kidney Early Evaluation Program (KEEP)

OBJECTIVE

Women with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) maintain a higher risk for recurrent GDM and overt diabetes. Overt diabetes is a risk factor for development of chronic kidney disease (CKD), but GDM alone, without subsequent development of overt diabetes, may also pose a risk for CKD.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS

This cross-sectional analysis included Kidney Early Evaluation Program (KEEP) participants from 2000 to 2009. Patient characteristics and kidney function among three categories (GDM alone, overt diabetes, and no history of diabetes) were compared. The prevalence of microalbuminuria, macroalbuminuria, and CKD stages 1–2 and 3–5 was assessed using logistic regression.

RESULTS

Of 37,716 KEEP female participants, 571 (1.5%) had GDM alone and 12,100 (32.1%) had overt diabetes. Women with GDM had a higher rate of microalbuminuria but not macroalbuminuria than their nondiabetic peers (10.0 vs. 7.7%) that was substantially lower than the 13.6% prevalence in diabetic women. In multivariate analysis, women with GDM alone, compared with nondiabetic women, demonstrated increased odds of CKD stages 1–2 (multivariate odds ratio 1.54 95% CI 1.16–2.05]) similar to the odds for women with overt diabetes (1.68 1.55–1.82]). In stratified analyses, age, race, BMI, and hypertension modified the odds for CKD stages 1 –2 but not CKD stages 3–5 among women with GDM.

CONCLUSIONS

Women with GDM alone have a higher prevalence of microalbuminuria than women without any history of diabetes, translating to higher rates of CKD stages 1–2. These results suggest that GDM, even in the absence of subsequent overt diabetes, may increase the risk for future cardiovascular and kidney disease.Most women who develop diabetes during a pregnancy, gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), are normoglycemic after delivery but still maintain a higher risk for recurrent GDM, impaired glucose tolerance, and overt diabetes. Indeed, the odds of developing subsequent type 2 diabetes for women with GDM is roughly 5 times higher than that for women with normoglycemic pregnancies in the first 5 years after delivery; the odds rise to more than 9 times higher in the years afterward (1).Although overt diabetes is recognized as a potent risk factor for development of chronic kidney disease (CKD), it is currently unclear whether GDM alone, without subsequent development of overt diabetes, also poses any risk to kidney function. Because certain clinical factors (e.g., waist circumference, BMI, and years postdelivery) have been shown to increase the risk for development of overt diabetes in women with GDM (2), these factors could potentially also modify the risk for development of CKD.We hypothesized that GDM alone would impart an increased risk for CKD and, specifically, that women with GDM would have a level of risk intermediate between that of women without any history of glucose abnormalities and women with overt diabetes. Using data from the National Kidney Foundation''s Kidney Early Evaluation Program (KEEP), a program designed to screen participants at higher risk for CKD than the general population, we examined in cross-sectional analyses whether GDM, in the absence of subsequent overt diabetes, increases the odds of abnormal urinary albumin excretion and impaired glomerular filtration rate. In addition, we examined whether age, race, BMI, or hypertension modifies this relationship between GDM and CKD.