Disorders of carbohydrate and lipid metabolism in veterans with paraplegia or quadriplegia: a model of premature aging.

One hundred veterans with paralysis due to spinal cord injury (SCI), equally divided between those with paraplegia and quadriplegia, and 50 able-bodied veteran controls underwent a 75-g oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). In subjects with SCI, 22% were diabetic by criteria established by the World Health Organization (WHO), whereas only 6% of the control group were diabetic. Eighty-two percent of the controls had normal (NL) oral glucose tolerance, compared with 38% of those with quadriplegia and 50% of those with paraplegia. Subjects with diabetes mellitus (DM) were older in both the SCI and control groups, but those with SCI developed carbohydrate disorders at younger ages than did the control group. SCI subjects had significantly higher mean glucose and insulin values at several points during the OGTT when compared with controls, suggesting an accentuated state of insulin resistance in those with SCI. Mean fasting plasma glucose (FPG) values for both SCI and control groups were significantly higher in subjects with DM compared with those with NL glucose tolerance. When the FPG value was compared between SCI or control subjects with abnormalities in glucose tolerance, the subgroups with SCI and NL or impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) had significantly lower FPG levels than the respective control subgroups, suggestive of decreased hepatic glucose output in SCI.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)