Cardiac structural, functional and energetic assessments during and after pregnancy in women with gestational diabetes mellitus, preeclampsia and healthy pregnancy

Background: GDM and preeclampsia are common complications of pregnancy, for which overweight/obesity is a common risk factor. Both conditions are associated with a two-to-four-fold increase in future incident heart failure, which may be linked to early maladaptive myocardial changes.

Objectives: To determine maternal myocardial structural, functional, and energetic responses to pregnancies complicated by gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) or preeclampsia compared to healthy pregnancies (HP) at third-trimester of pregnancy and twelve-months postpartum.

Study design: Thirty-eight women with HP, 30 GDM, 20 preeclampsia, 10 non-pregnant controls with overweight (Overweight-NC) and 10 with normal-weight were recruited. Cardiovascular magnetic resonance spectroscopy and imaging were used to define myocardial energetics (phosphocreatine: ATP ratio [PCr/ATP]), left ventricular (LV) volumes, mass, and ejection fraction and global longitudinal shortening (GLS). Pregnancy groups underwent repeat scans twelve-months postpartum, nulliparous-controls were assessed once.

Results: During third-trimester, compared to HP, women with either GDM or preeclampsia displayed higher BMI, higher LV-mass (HP:90[85,94]g, GDM:103[96,112], Preeclampsia:118[111,125]g; P=0.001), and lower PCr/ATP (HP:2.2[2.1,2.4], GDM:1.9[1.7,2], Preeclampsia:1.9[1.8,2.1];P=0.0004) and GLS (HP:20[18,21]%, GDM:18[17,19]%, Preeclampsia:16[14,17]%;P=0.01). Post-pregnancy, no group saw significant changes in LV-mass, PCr/ATP or GLS. There were no significant differences in LV-mass, PCr/ATP or GLS between the GDM and preeclampsia groups during or post-pregnancy. Moreover, the Overweight-NC showed no significant differences in LV-mass ( 53[43,63])g, PCr/ATP (2.0[1.8,2.2]) or GLS (-19[17,21]%) compared to GDM or preeclampsia groups during or post-pregnancy.

Conclusions: Women with GDM or preeclampsia exhibit similar myocardial phenotypes during pregnancy with persistent subclinical alterations in LV mass, energetics and GLS twelve-months postpartum. These myocardial alterations are similar to those detected in Overweight-NC, potentially suggesting the myocardial changes may predominantly be driven by overweight/obesity.