Blood Count-Derived Inflammatory Indices at Two Timepoints in Insulin-Treated Gestational Diabetes: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Purpose

Complete blood count-derived inflammatory indices are widely studied in pregnancy, with inconsistent findings; if they capture a persistent maternal characteristic, a woman's value at one timepoint should locate her value at another. We examined within-woman tracking of six indices, and their relation to fetal overgrowth, in insulin-treated gestational diabetes (GDM). Patients and methods: Retrospective cohort of 358 women with insulin-treated GDM at a tertiary centre. Six indices (NLR, PLR, MLR, SII, SIRI, PIV) were calculated at the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT, 24-28 weeks) and at delivery admission, two physiologically distinct occasions. The primary outcome was large-for-gestational-age (LGA) birth (INTERGROWTH-21st); macrosomia was secondary. Tracking was quantified by Spearman correlation and the between-woman variance share from a mixed model. Analytic samples were 358 (group comparisons, discrimination), 353 (paired) and 284 (adjusted models), one lower in each for MLR, SIRI and PIV.