Impaired early insulin response to glycemic stimulus during enflurane anesthesia in dogs.

We assayed glucose tolerance and insulin secretion in unanesthetised dogs and during enflurane anesthesia. When compared to the awake control animals, enflurane administration induced glucose intolerance with mild hyperglycemia resulting from decreased basal insulin secretion. Moreover, insulin secretion in response to a glycemic stimulus (intravenous glucose tolerance test) was impaired. Comparison between the net incremental insulin responses and the cumulative insulinogenic indexes suggests impaired insulin secretion is mainly related to a deficit in secretion from the acutely releasable insulin storage pool.