Early pregnancy leukocyte counts up odds of positive glucose challenge test result

Higher leukocyte counts during early pregnancy increase the likelihood of a positive glucose challenge test (GCT), suggesting a link between inflammation and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), a new study has found.

Researchers retrieved prenatal data from 20,707 pregnant women who had had their first clinical check-up during early pregnancy and had undergone a GCT between 24 and 28 gestational weeks. A GCT result of ≥7.8 mmol/L was considered positive.

The median leukocyte count was 8.29 ×10⁹/L and 18.6 percent (n=3,853) tested positive on the GCT and were thus considered to be at high risk of GDM. Those with positive test results had higher leukocyte counts during their first prenatal visit.

Spearman’s correlation analysis revealed a significant and positive correlation between leukocyte count and GCT positivity (r, 0.098; p<0.001), which was confirmed by multivariate regression (coefficient, 0.025; p<0.001).

Dividing the participants into quartiles of leukocyte counts showed that mean GCT scores increased significantly with increasing quartiles (p_trend<0.001). Similarly, the rate of GCT positivity was likewise elevated in higher quartiles.

Multivariate logistic regression analysis was then performed to assess leukocyte count and risk, revealing that an increase in leukocyte count indeed correlates to a slight but significant jump in the likelihood of a positive GCT result (odds ratio, 1.022, 95 percent confidence interval, 1.011–1.033).

“The association between leukocyte counts and positive GCT results helped to point out that further studies’ direction would be exploring mechanisms of inflammatory status on altered glucose tolerance, and finding out more specific biomarkers for early pregnancy diagnosis, and potential target on inflammation mitigation for prevention and therapy of GDM,” the researchers said.