Separation of physiological factors influencing glucose-insulin kinetics in diabetic patients.

A new quantitative method was developed for separation of physiological factors influencing glucose intolerance in diabetes mellitus using a three-compartmental model and the intravenous glucose tolerance test (IVGTT) in humans. The present model includes the physiologic factors of the hepatic glucose balance function, the peripheral tissue's glucose utilization rate, and the insulin secretion rate. The insulin sensitivity parameter and hepatic glucose sensitivity parameter were estimated in optimal fitting of the model-based data of glucose and insulin concentrations to the measured IVGTT data in 9 normal and 11 diabetic subjects. The results show that these sensitivity parameters are important for separation of the effects of the interactive physiologic factors, and, also useful in evaluating different glucose-insulin kinetics in 3 clinical groups of normal and diabetic subjects.