Work

Remnant cholesterol is associated with gestational diabetes mellitus in early pregnancy: a single-center retrospective study

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: The association between remnant cholesterol (RC) and the risk of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) remains incompletely understood. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between RC and GDM in pregnant women at 12–14 weeks of gestation. This single-center retrospective study included 274 pregnant women who received prenatal care and were screened for eligibility at Wujiang Fifth Hospital, affiliated with Suzhou Vocational Health College, Suzhou, China, between January and December 2024. Firth penalized logistic regression analysis was used to estimate the association between RC and GDM risk. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was performed to further evaluate the discriminatory performance of RC for GDM. RC levels were obtained by calculation. The overall incidence of GDM was 8.03%. In this retrospective study, elevated RC levels were independently associated with GDM among pregnant women. After adjustment for established risk factors, including age and pre-pregnancy BMI, each 1 mg/dL increase in RC was associated with a 14.1% increase in the odds of GDM. Notably, women in the highest RC tertile exhibited approximately 7.347 times the GDM risk compared with those in the lowest tertile. Furthermore, adding RC to the reference model (age and pre-pregnancy BMI) increased the AUC from 0.749 (95% CI: 0.628–0.870) to 0.859 (95% CI: 0.759–0.959), representing a ΔAUC of 0.110 (DeLong test, P = 0.014). This study demonstrated an independent association between elevated RC levels and GDM among pregnant women at 12–14 weeks of gestation. Not applicable.

Source: BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth

DOI: 10.1186/s12884-026-10244-8