1.0 Introduction
In the late 1970s, both World Health Organization (WHO) and the National Diabetes Data Group produced new diagnostic criteria and a new classification system for diabetes mellitus (World Health Organization, 1985). This brought order to a chaotic situation in which nomenclature varied and diagnostic criteria showed enormous variations using different oral glucose loads. In 1985 WHO slightly modified their criteria to coincide more closely with the NDDG values. There are now many data available, and also much more aetiological information has appeared. It seemed timely to re-examine the issues and to update and refine both the classification and the criteria, and to include a definition of the “Metabolic Syndrome” (World Health Organization, 1985).
An American Diabetes Association (ADA) expert group was convened to discuss these issues. It published its recommendations in 1997. WHO convened a Consultation on the same subject in London, United Kingdom, in December 1996 (The Expert Committee on the Diagnosis and Classification of Diabetes Mellitus. Report of the Expert Committee on the Diagnosis and Classification of Diabetes Mellitus, 1997). In general, the ADA and WHO groups reached similar conclusions.
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