Early-pregnancy maternal heart rate is related to gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM).

Abstract Objective The study examined the association between resting heart rate (RHR) of early pregnancy and risk of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) in Chinese population. Methods As retrospective study, medical data of 15092 pregnant women gave birth in 2019 was collected and analyzed. The pregnant women’s age, educational level, pre-pregnancy body weight, height, parity, family history of diabetes, lipid profile, blood pressure and RHR were recorded during 11∼13+6 weeks. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to estimate the association between maternal characteristics and RHR and GDM. And we further evaluated the predictive roll of RHR in different sub-groups defined by their body mass index (BMI), age, fasting plasma glucose (FPG), total cholesterol and triglyceride. Results 2313 women (15.33%) were diagnosed as GDM according to 75g OGTT. According to the quartile value of RHR, the subjects were divided into four groups. Risk of GDM increased significantly as RHR increased. In the fully adjusted model, ORs(95%CI) for the lowest vs highest quartiles of heart rate were 1(as reference), 1.14(0.97∼1.33), 1.25(1.05∼1.40), 1.41(1.21∼1.62), respectively. In the subgroup’s analysis, we found the relationship between RHR and risk of GDM was evident in women with low and normal BMI; with normal fasting plasma; and normal serum lipid level. Conclusion The current study shows early-pregnancy maternal RHR is associated with potential risk of developing GDM.