Inappropriate counter-regulatory hormone levels in insulin treated diabetes.

The data herein presented describe, identify, and quantitate interrelationships among blood glucose and serum insulin, growth hormone, cortisol, and glucagon levels of hospitalized insulin-treated diabetic patients. The findings indicate that conventional diet and insulin therapy of diabetes mellitus is almost always accompanied by inappropriate counter-regulation by growth hormone, cortisol, and glucagon. The data are consonant with the hypothesis that a shortage of insulin is only one of the multihormonal defects of diabetes.