Diabetes class is a classification system developed by Priscilla White to exemplify the effects of diabetes on mothers and babies throughout pregnancy. White was the founding researcher who recognized the distinction necessary for perinatology studies related to diabetes. Using the White system, there are two main types of diabetes, gestational diabetes- class a diabetes-and pre-gestational diabetes- class b diabetes.
Gestational diabetes is a condition in which the pancreas cannot produce enough insulin or the body cannot absorb the insulin and therefore has elevated blood sugar levels. This condition is similar to type 2 diabetes, however, the condition will resolve itself after the mother has delivered her baby. White distinguished gestational diabetes sufferers by their mode of treatment. The blood sugar levels of a1 were regulated by their diet, while the blood sugar levels of a2 were controlled through injections of insulin.
White defines pre-gestational diabetes as diabetes that a woman had prior to being pregnant and she further divided it into numerous subcategories with the letters b, c, d, e, f, r, rf, h, and t. These subsets list the first criteria, which is having had diabetes before being pregnant as a standard and secondary characteristics are age of onset, duration of condition, and subsequent diseases. For example, diabetes class b is a female that was diagnosed with diabetes at age twenty or later and has had the condition for less than ten years.
Diabetes Class by Onset and Duration
Diabetes class can cause confusion for individuals who are not familiar with the terms. To simplify, all classes from b through t mean the person developed diabetes before being pregnant and not because of gestation. Classes b, c, and d refer to subcategories of this group with an additional reference of when they developed diabetes, how long they have endured the disease, and vascular complications. Class c diabetes, for example, implies that the individual was between the age of ten and nineteen when she was diagnosed with diabetes and she has had it for ten to nineteen years at present. Class d diabetesrefers to a diabetic who was diagnosed before age ten and has had the disease twenty years or more.
Diabetes Class by Additional Diseases
The final set of classes, e, f, r, rf, h, and t remain in the class of individuals who developed the disease prior to pregnancy but they differ from the aforementioned group because they do not mention age of onset and duration, but rather additional symptoms or diseases that the person has encountered due to their diabetes. For instance, class e encompasses individuals who have obvious signs of diabetes and possess calcified pelvic vessels.
Class f diabetesrefers to individuals who have kidney disease (nephropathy), class r diabetesregards people who suffer vision impairment (retinopathy), and class rfdiabetesis the group that suffers from both conditions of kidney disease and vision impairment. Class h and class t are the most severe subsets of the group with class h being diabetics with serious heart disease and class t being diabetics who have had previous kidney transplants.
