Abstract

BACKGROUND
The American Diabetes Association recently proposed the Carpenter-Coustan criteria for the diagnosis of gestational diabetes mellitus(GDM) based on the results of the Toronto Tri-Hospital Study. The prevalence of GDM in Korean women increased, on average, by 60% when the Carpenter-Coustan criteria were applied. However, the pregnancy outcome of Korean women with GDM with regard to the Carpenter-Coustan criteria tremains to be reported. The pregnancy outcomes of those Korean women with GDM by the Carpenter- Coustan criteria, but not by the NDDG criteria were assessed. METHODS: In this study, a total of 2776 pregnant women underwent universal screening for GDM, between January 1993 and December 1994, as recommended by the Third International Workshop-Conference on Gestational Diabetes Mellitus with minor modifications. The primary pregnancy outcomes were preeclampsia, premature delivery, delivery by C-section, birth weight and LGA infants. RESULTS: Of the 2776 women, 656 screened-positive for GDM. Of these, 37 and 74 had GDM by the Carpenter-Coustan and NDDG criteria, respectively. With increasing glucose intolerance, there was a stepwise increase in premature deliveries, deliveries by C-section and preeclampsia from those screening negative to GDM by the NDDG criteria, with a similar trend for the frequency of LGA infants. The LGA infant screening-negative and positive were 13.5 and 16.1%, but those with a normal glucose tolerance were 27.0 and 33.8% in those screening positive to GDM by the Carpenter-Coustan and NDDG criteria, respectively(P<0.001). CONCLUSION: Our study demonstrated that increasing glucose tolerance was associated with increasing frequencies of adverse pregnancy outcomes in Korean women. The maternally complicated and LGA infants were significantly higher in women with GDM by the Carpenter-Coustan criteria. Thus the Carpenter- Coustan criteria are recommended for the diagnosis of GDM in Korean Women.

• Keywords: Gestational diabetes;Pregnancy outcome;Diagnostic criteria;