Comparison between usual and low doses of insulin in the assessment of insulin sensitivity with a short insulin tolerance test in obese women

ABSTRACT

Background. The objective of this study is to compare, in obsese women, the assessment of insulin sentitivity and the presence of hypoglycemia between the usual and low doses of insulin used in the short tolerance test (ITT). Methods. The patients were 12 obese women on whom a rendomized, double-masked, auto-controlled clinical trial was carried out. An ITT was performed on each volunteer in duplicate with insulin at 0.1 (usual dose) or o.05 U/kg (low dose). Results. The constant for the rate serum glucose disappearance calculated for the ITT was not significantly different between both tests (4.3 ñ 0.5 vs. 4.4 ñ 1.0 percent/min., usual dose and low dose of insulin, respectively; p = 0.49). there was a significant correlation between both tests (r²= 0.34, p<0.05). Differences between both tests had estimated limits of agreement of -0.97 to 0.65 to 0.65 percent/min. Between tests, the coefficient of variation was 16 percent. No subject developed hypoglycemia with any of the ITT measurements employing usual or low dose of insulin. Conclusions. We recommend a low dose of insulin in the assessment of insulin sensitivity with ITT in obese people. In our study usual and low doses of insulin used in the ITT were safe and had similar results between both doses for assessing insulin sensitivity