Diabetes, Vol 47, Issue 9 1489-1493, Copyright © 1998 by American Diabetes Association
Intrauterine diabetes exposure and the risk of renal disease in diabetic Pima Indians
RG Nelson, H Morgenstern and PH Bennett
Phoenix Epidemiology and Clinical Research Branch, National Insitute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Phoenix, Arizona 85014-4972, USA. rnelson@phx.niddk.nih.gov
The association between the diabetic intrauterine environment and renal
disease was examined cross-sectionally in 503 Pima Indians with type 2
diabetes. Subjects were selected from participants in an ongoing study of
diabetes and its complications in the Gila River Indian Community of
Arizona. Subjects' exposure to diabetes in utero was established from
periodic examinations conducted as part of the study. The prevalence of
elevated urinary albumin excretion (UAE) (albumin-to-creatinine ratio >
or = 30 mg/g) was 40% (83 of 207) in the offspring of nondiabetic mothers,
43% (105 of 246) in the offspring of prediabetic mothers (i.e., women who
were not diabetic at the time of the pregnancy but who developed diabetes
after the pregnancy), and 58% (29 of 50) in the offspring of mothers who
had diabetes during pregnancy. After controlling for age, sex, duration of
diabetes, HbA1c, and mean arterial pressure in the offspring in a logistic
regression analysis using generalized estimating equations, maternal
diabetes during pregnancy was strongly associated with elevated UAE. The
odds of elevated UAE in the offspring of mothers who had diabetes during
pregnancy was 3.8 times (95% CI 1.7-8.4) that of the offspring of
prediabetic mothers; the odds of elevated UAE in the offspring of
nondiabetic and prediabetic mothers were similar (odds ratio of 0.94; 95%
CI 0.59-1.5). We concluded that exposure to a diabetic intrauterine
environment increases the risk of elevated UAE in diabetic Pima Indians.
The effect of this exposure appears to be independent of other
susceptibility factors that lead to nephropathy in diabetes.