Glucose tollerance as a predictor of surgical risk and survival in patients with pancreatic carcinoma.

A glucose tolerance test was performed in 75 patients with carcinoma of the pancreas and periampullary region. The glucose tolerance patterns were classified into two distinct types of the parabolic and linear patterns. The linear pattern was observed in about 50 percent of nonjaundiced patients and 40 percent of severly jaundiced patients. The patients with a linear pattern had a high mortality rate and a short life expectancy compared with those with a parabolic pattern.