Evolution of diagnostic criteria for gestational diabetes mellitus

The establishment of universal diagnostic guidelines for gestational diabetes mellitus has been a long time coming. The lack of consensus and uniformity in procedures for diagnosing this disease has been a problem ever since its existence was recognized. The USA, European countries, and Australia have each developed their own guidelines through the years, all based either on the maternal risk of subsequent diabetes, on arbitrary statistics, or on studies conducted on non-pregnant women. None of these guidelines have been based on risk for perinatal complications. Recently, the Hyperglycemia and Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes study demonstrated that maternal hyperglycemia is associated with perinatal risk in a linear way with no obvious threshold. The International Association of Diabetes and Pregnancy Study Group has translated these results into clinical practice by proposing new diagnostic criteria for gestational diabetes mellitus, based for the first time on perinatal outcome.