"The study findings raise the important possibility that women with gestational glucose intolerance and subsequent postpartum metabolic syndrome represent a patient population at particularly high risk for the future development of metabolic and vascular disease," said Ravi Retnakaran, MD, of Mount Sinai Hospital and the University of Toronto and lead author of the study. "Further research with long-term follow-up is needed to address this possibility."

"Our data also suggests that glucose tolerance screening in pregnancy, as is currently practiced, may provide previously unrecognized insight into a woman's postpartum cardiovascular risk-factor profile," said Retnakaran. "Furthermore, glucose tolerance screening may identify subgroups of young women for whom cardiovascular risk-factor monitoring may be warranted."

The article, "Glucose Intolerance in Pregnancy and Postpartum Risk of Metabolic Syndrome in Young Women," will appear in the February 2010 issue of JCEM.

SOURCE The Endocrine Society