ABSTRACT
Five healthy women aged 27ñ7 years old with a body mass index of 21ñ2 kg/m² and 6 hyperandrogenic women aged 25ñ4 years old with a body mass index of 40ñ5 kg/m² were studied after a 10 hours fast. For the insulin tolerance test, 0.1 U/Kg of crystalline insulin were injected intravenously and blood samples were drawn to measure glucose at -5,0,3,5,10 and 15 min. after the injection. Insulin resistance was calculated using the slope of descending blood glucose levels (SIû). For the intravenous glucose tolerance test, 29 blood glucose samples were obtained after an intravenous injection of 0,3 g glucose/kg followed by an injection of 0.02 U/kg of crystalline insulin. Insulin sensitivity (SI²) was calculated using Bergman's minimal model. Healthy women had a SIû of 0.58 (range 0.53-0.63) and a SI² of 7.9x10-4x min-û/uU/ml (range 4.15-9.11). For hyperandrogenic women were 0.18 (range 0.06-0.29) and 0.9x10-4xmin-û/uU/ml (range 0.46-1.79) respectively. Both methods had a positive correlation coefficient of 0.859 (p<0.001). In conclusion, insulin tolerance test is a good method to measure insulin resistance and has a good correlation with the frequently sampled intravenous glucose tolerance test