Gestational Diabetes Mellitus Update and Review of Literature

Gestational diabetes mellitus has been associated with various maternal and perinatal adverse outcomes. Screening and subsequent treatment are associated with short term benefit. With the recent recommended diagnostic criteria by the International Association of Diabetes and Pregnancy Study Groups and increasing rate of obesity, the prevalence will continue to rise. It remains uncertain whether this new diagnostic criteria is cost effective or beneficial. Interventions include lifestyle modification, oral hypoglycaemic agents and insulin. The encouraging result and safety profile with oral hypoglycaemic agents may provide a safe alterative to insulin in patients who fail lifestyle modification. *Corresponding author: Dr. K.W. Cheung, 6/F, Professorial Block, Queen Mary Hospital, 102 Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China, Tel: +852-92833029; Fax: +85228550947; E-mail: [email protected] Received May 09, 2011; Accepted June 18, 2012; Published June 20, 2012 Citation: Cheung KW, Wong SF (2012) Gestational Diabetes Mellitus Update and Review of Literature. Reproductive Sys Sexual Disord S2:002. doi:10.4172/2161038X.S2-002 Copyright: © 2012 Cheung KW, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Introduction Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is defined by glucose intolerance of variable severity with onset of first recognition during pregnancy [1]. Hyperglycaemia during pregnancy is found to be associated with various maternal and perinatal adverse outcomes [2,3]. Their offsprings will have a life-long increase risk of glucose intolerance, obesity and metabolic syndrome whereas the mothers will have a higher risk of metabolic syndrome and diabetes in the future [4]. The detection of GDM during pregnancy provides an opportunity to identify women at risk of short term and long term complications. We now have evidence that early diagnosis and intervention can reduce the adverse perinatal outcomes [5-7]. Throughout all these years, there is still no consensus on the optimal diagnostic cut-off until the recent recommendation by the International Association of Diabetes and Pregnancy Study Groups (IADPSG) [8]. The purpose of this review is to provide a recent update and discuss the current controversies on GDM. The implications of the recent international consensus statement on new diagnostic criteria for GDM are discussed.