Effect of αa-adrenoceptor antagonist on platelet activation during insulin-induced hypoglycaemia in Type 2 (non-insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus

✍ Scribed by D. P. Mikhailidis

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1989
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 282 KB
• Volume: 32
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0012-186X
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00505191

✦ Synopsis

Is a low insulin response to intravenous glucose an marker of Type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes?

Dear Sir, Recently B. Vialettes et al. published the results of a study to determine the value of low acute insulin response to intravenous glucose as a marker of early stages of Type i (insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus [1].

In their article the authors raise the question, whether low acute insulin response is a reliable marker of pre Type 1 diabetes in young patients. In their conclusion they state, that a low acute insulin response to glucose is a sensitive but not specific marker of early stages of Type 1 diabetes. They based their results on a population of 39 individuals with mild or transient hyperglycaemia with fasting blood-glucose levels between 7.7 and 10.0 mmol/1 by two separate measurements. According to WHO criteria they can thus be classified as diabetic patients [2]. The population was followed for three years. They state that at the end of this period the patients were insulin-dependent. This insulin-dependency however, is not defined and seems to be nothing more than insulin treated.

In a group of 150 first degree relatives of Type I diabetic patients only two persons became diabetic. Obviously this number is too low to make a reliable estimate of sensitivity and specificity.

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The conclusion is thus only valid in diabetic patients, who may or may not be suffering from slow Type 1 diabetes. For the relatives of Type 1 diabetic patients no conclusion can be drawn at all.