Screening for Gestational Diabetes Mellitus:An Update

Detecting the evidence of diabetes mellitus in pregnancy is a major challenge as the condition is associated with diverse range of adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes. Women diagnosed to have GDM are at increased risk of future diabetes predominantly type 2 DM as are their children. Thus GDM offers an important opportunity for the development, testing and implementation of clinical strategies for diabetes prevention [5]. As the practice of medicine moves towards an evidencebased paradigm, the debate about gestational diabetes focuses on the absence of prospective randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that assess the value of screening for and treating this disorder. Proponents of screening, argue that although available data is inadequate, there are biologically plausible explanations to account for adverse perinatal outcomes associated with gestational diabetes that supports the relevance for its screening. Recently, the United States preventive services task force (USPSTF), recognized that treatment of GDM improves maternal and neonatal outcomes but also states that there is lack of evidence to support screening of GDM [6].