Abstract

Background: The study aimed to investigate the relationship between plasma amylase levels and the endocrine and metabolic biomarkers in Chinese pregnant women with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) in the southwest of China and to compare plasma amylase with other known biomarkers in relation to their contributions to identifying GDM, with a view to establishing plasma amylase as an independent laboratory-based risk factor for GDM. Methods: This study included 1,870 pregnant women divided into three groups: early pregnancy, middle pregnancy, and late pregnancy according to weeks of gestation, and 164 pregnant women were excluded by diseases. Fasting samples of participants were collected and plasma amylase and other metabolic markers were measured. The pregnant women were identified as having GDM by a 75 g oral glucose tolerance test performed between the 24th and the 28th week of gestation. Multivariate logistic regression was used to examine the associations between the amylase and the prevalence of GDM in pregnant women.
Results: Significant differences were found in plasma amylase and metabolic markers in different trimesters of pregnancy. For the pregnant women with GDM, fasting plasma glucose (FPG), 1hPG, 2hPG, HOMA-IR, and plasma amylase levels were all statistically different when compared with the pregnant women without GDM. The plasma amylase levels in 24th - 28th week of pregnant women (628) were negatively correlated with FPG, 1hPG, HOMA-IR, age, and the endocrine and metabolic biomarkers. Following adjustment for age, HOMA-IR, and FPG, multivariate logistic regression showed that plasma amylase level was the independent factor predicting GDM in 24th - 28th week of pregnant women.
Conclusions: The plasma amylase of GDM women are higher compared to healthy pregnant women, suggesting the plasma amylase levels are associated with GDM patients. Given the growing incidence of GDM, it provides an opportunity for primary intervention strategies which would not only improve the health of mother and fetus but also decrease the risk of GDM.

DOI: 10.7754/Clin.Lab.2018.180550