Strengths and Limitations
Our study described the longitudinal change in serum TG from pregnancy to 42 days postpartum, and particularly focused on the postpartum outcome of TG elevation in gestation, making up for the missing part of existing studies that only studied during pregnancy. Our study was the first to find that TG level at 42 days postpartum was positively associated with gestational TG, and presented that gestational TG can be a predictor of postpartum hypertriglyceridemia. Considering that TG changes continuously from pregnancy to postpartum, we also got down to the positive associations between TG time trend of change throughout gestation and postpartum TG level and hypertriglyceridemia, which took into account the time variation and scientifically reflected the association.
At present, there is no consensual recommended reference values of maternal serum lipids during pregnancy. We innovatively found four TG cutoff points at four gestational week that involved all three trimesters, which gave clinical significance to epidemiological analytic study, and provided a referable guidance on blood lipid control for pregnant women.
Another light spot of the study was that we compared the postpartum TG outcomes in pregnant women with different pre-BMI and between women with and without GDM. We were amazed to find that the risk of gestational TG to postpartum health is even greater for normal women. The results were supposed to aware pregnant women of pre-BMI, blood glucose and lipid control, for the sake of their postpartum lipid health.
There were still some limitations in the present study. For instance, the follow-up visit was up to 42 days postpartum, for lack of subsequent trace. Lifestyles of pregnant women including dietary structure and physical activity that could be important factors for serum TG level is needed to be considered during pregnancy and postpartum.