[Simultaneous determination of blood insulin and plasma C-peptide levels. Value during assessment of glucose tolerance, especially in obese subjects (author's transl)].

Insulin secretion is assessed by simultaneous radioimmunological assay of insulin (R.I.I.) and C-peptide (R.I.C.P.) levels under basal conditions, and after stimulation by oral or intravenous glucose administration. Subjects with abnormal glucose tolerance demonstrate an increase in the ratios R.I.C.P. divided by glucose and R.I.C.P. divided by R.I.I. after fasting, increase in R.I.I. and R.I.C.P. occurring later and lasting longer after glucose loading. These anomalies are observed in both obese subjects and those with normal body weights. Simultaneous determination of R.I.I. and R.I.C.P. levels appears of value in a limited number of cases where glucose loading tests do not supply precise information on the quality of glucose tolerance. Obese subjects, in whom abnormal hyperglycemia levels provoked by oral glucose are observed, but in whom the peripheral glucose assimilation coefficient is normal, can be considered to be non-diabetic as shown by the levels of R.I.I. and R.I.C.P. and more particularly by the molar ratio R.I.C.P. divided by R.I.I.