Association of Leptin with Glucose Intolerance and Gestational Diabetes Mellitus in Pregnant Women: Prospective Analytical Case-Control Study.

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the use of leptin as a marker for gestational diabetes by analyzing any correlation between serum leptin levels versus oral glucose tolerance tests (at 24 to 28weeks of pregnancy) and increased body weight (during pregnancy). A total of 110 female cases (81 pregnant and 29 non-pregnant) were included in the study. The 81 pregnant cases were divided into 3 groups according to their oral glucose tolerance test results. A chi-square test was used for categorical variables. The distribution of numerical variables was tested with the Shapiro-Wilk test. ANOVA and a post-hoc Bonferroni test was used for parametric data. Kruskal-Wallis variance analysis was used for non-parametric data. The Mann-Whitney U-test was used for pairwise comparisons. Spearman correlation analysis and multivariate regression analysis were performed for the evaluation of the correlation analysis between the parameters. Oral glucose tolerance test results were compared with leptin levels with a cut-off value of 11.43 for leptin. The ROC curve demonstrated an 83.3% sensitivity and 72.1% specificity for leptin. Leptin may play a role in the pathophysiology of gestational diabetes mellitus. However, the relationship between leptin levels and maternal weight gain during pregnancy is still unknown.