DIAGNOSTIC-CRITERIA FOR DIABETES-MELLITUS IN JAPAN - FROM A REPORT OFTHE JAPAN-DIABETES-SOCIETY (JDS) COMMITTEE-ON-THE-DIAGNOSIS-OF-DIABETES-MELLITUS, 1982

After the proposal of diagnostic criteria for diabetes mellitus by the National Diabetes Data Group (1979) and by WHO (1980), a committee wa s set up by the Japan Diabetes Society (JDS) to reconsider the old cri teria by the JDS which had been proposed in 1970. Items covered by the report of the committee in 1982 included the concept of diabetes mell itus, describing it's features, and stating that it's diagnosis is a p rocedure of recognizing the disease 'diabetes' characterized by these features. Cutoff blood glucose values for fasting samples, after a 75 g oral glucose tolerance test, were proposed to define normal and diab etic types. The cutoff values for the diabetic type are identical to t hose of the WHO defining diabetes, whereas the values for the normal t ype (fasting < 110 mg/dl and 1-h < 160 and 2-h < 120 mg/dl for venous plasma) are much lower than those for the lower limit of IGT by the WH O. Subjects whose glucose tolerance is neither diabetic nor normal are classified as borderline type, which includes not only IGT but cases with milder glucose intolerance. The cutoff points for the normal type were selected based on the long-term follow-up data for mild glucose intolerance in Japan. The Committee further stated that the clinical d iagnosis of diabetes should be made not only on the basis of the gluco se tolerance data, but also after clinical consideration of the possib ility of any other diseases which might impair glucose tolerance.