Relation between plasma insulin and blood glucose in a cross-sectional population study of the oral glucose tolerance test.

In a material of 3596 oral glucose tolerance tests (OGTT) performed in a population investigation of middle-aged males in Malmö, fasting and 120 min values of blood glucose and plasma insulin immunoreactivity (IRI) were studied while taking factors like body weight, smoking, alcohol, gastric resection and selfreported diabetes heredity into account. The fasting as well as the 120 min levels of both glucose and IRI were markedly influenced by body weight and smoking habits but not by the hereditary background. At 120 min, but not in the fasting state, there was a linear correlation between the IRI and glucose levels. The increase of IRI on glucose was significantly steeper in most of the hereditary subjects in comparison with their non-hereditary controls.