A comparison of pregnancy outcomes in Japanese women with type 2 and type 1 diabetes mellitus at tertiary centers

Aims/Introduction The global prevalence of type 2 diabetes has been increasing in all age groups in recent years. Some studies have suggested that perinatal outcomes in these women are worse than in women with type 1 diabetes. We evaluated pregnancy outcomes in Japanese women with type 2 and type 1 diabetes. Materials and methods We retrospectively studied 29 pregnancies in women with type 2 diabetes and 15 pregnancies in those with type 1 diabetes at two tertiary centers. The relationship between small for gestational age (SGA) and various other data was tested by correlation analysis. Results The amount of preconceptional care did not differ between the type 2 and type 1 diabetic women. Diabetic overt nephropathy was observed in 5 women with type 2 diabetes (17.2%) whereas none of the women with type 1 diabetes had this condition. The incidence of SGA in type 2 diabetes tended to be higher than in type 1 diabetes (24.1 and 6.7%).The incidence of SGA was higher than that of large for gestational age (LGA) in women with type 2 diabetes (24.1 and 10.3%). In correlation analysis, diabetic retinopathy and overt nephropathy significantly correlated with SGA. Conclusion We showed that pregnancy outcomes in type 2 diabetes were equally as poor as those in type 1 diabetes. We supposed that the high incidence of SGA in women with type 2 diabetes was associated with the high incidence of diabetic microvascular complications, especially diabetic overt nephropathy, which were related to poor preconceptional care.