Clinical use of the glucose disappearance rate.

An intravenous glucose tolerance test, coupled with a graphical or mathematical analysis, has been used in normal, diabetic, and glycosuric subjects, and patients suspected of having hypoglycemia. From the analysis, a single value, K, is derived which integrates the disappearance of the injected glucose. A significant difference was found between normals and known diabetics: this difference becomes even more distinct when the disappearance of the glucose load is measured as K1 or Increment Index, as opposed to decrease of the total blood glucose, K2 or Total Index. A 300-g. carbohydrate diet was shown to be important to the success of this test. More than 400 patients have been tested in the investigation of different disorders of glucose metabolism. Renal glycosuria was diagnosed in 35 patients. Rapid disappearance of the glucose load has been observed in 18 of 40 patients suspected of having hypoglycemia. Of 64 patients diagnosed in the hospital as previously unknown diabetics, 59 presented K1 values below the normal range.