Intravenous insulin simulates early insulin peak and reduces post-prandial hyperglycaemia/hyperinsulinaemia in type 2 (non-insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus.

In NIDDM patients the deficient initial rise in insulin is a consistent finding. This early phase of insulin secretion influences the degree of hyperglycaemia following a meal. In this study insulin was infused intravenously into newly diagnosed NIDDM patients in an attempt to mimic the non-diabetic insulin response to a mixed meal and to determine the effect of early insulin availability on post-prandial glucose, C-peptide and insulin concentrations in NIDDM patients. The study involved standardized meal tolerance tests (MTT) with and without insulin on 2 separate days, 1 week apart. Insulin was given by intravenous infusion (2.5 U Actrapid over 30 min) immediately following the start of a 500 kcal MTT. The subjects were divided into non-obese and obese sub-groups with 8 subjects in each group (BMI 24.0 vs 32.0 kg/m2, HbA1, 12.7 vs 9.8%, age 44.4 vs 43.0 yrs, respectively). Following intravenous insulin in non-obese diabetics a peak plasma insulin concentration of 0.393 pmol/ml was observed at 15 min compared to 0.148 pmol/ml at 90 min without exogenous insulin. The post-prandial glucose excursion between 60 and 120 min was significantly lowered with insulin (p less than 0.01). Similarly in the obese patients a higher and earlier insulin peak was achieved with intravenous insulin, with a lower level during the second half of the 4 h post-prandial period, the difference reaching significance at 150 min (p less than 0.05). No differences were observed in the C-peptide concentrations between the 2 study days.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)