Estimates of insulin action in normal, obese and NIDDM man: comparison of insulin and glucose infusion test, CIGMA, minimal model and glucose clamp techniques.

Many methods of varying complexity are available for the measurement of insulin resistance (action) in man. No study has previously compared several of these in the same subjects to establish which is the most appropriate for routine use. We have, therefore, compared six methods: the hyperinsulinemic eu(iso)-glycaemic clamp (Eu), insulin glucose infusion test (IGI), hyperglycaemic clamp (Hy), continuous infusion of glucose with model assessment (CIGMA), minimal model (Min) and modified minimal model (Mod). Nineteen subjects with varying degrees of glucose tolerance were studied. Eight normal (BMI 22.5 +/- 1.5 kg/m2), six obese (BMI 38 +/- 5 kg/m2) and five NIDDM subjects (BMI 27 +/- 3 kg/m2) were investigated, in a randomized fashion, on separate days. The ratio of metabolic clearance rate of glucose (MCRG) and Insulin (I) was used as the measure of insulin action during Eu, Hy and IGI. Si was calculated as the index of insulin sensitivity from (Min) and (Mod) and CIGMA was obtained as previously described. MCRG was converted to Si to allow for direct comparison with (Min). Methods requiring incremental endogenous insulin secretion (which was highly variable) to calculate an index of insulin action (Si Min, Si Hy and CIGMA) failed to find an overall difference between groups. Only Si Eu (p = 0.007) and Si IGI (p = 0.001) demonstrated a significant overall group difference when Si was used. When MCRG/I was used, Eu, IGI and Hy were able to distinguish a significant overall group difference. With the exception of CIGMA and SiHy all other methods found a significant difference in insulin action between normals and NIDDM subjects. Only Eu and IGI could distinguish obese from normal, while only Si Min, could distinguish obese from NIDDM subjects. Eu and IGI were the only methods to be significantly correlated: normals Rs = 0.75, p < 0.05, obese Rs = 0.9, p < 0.05, and NIDDM Rs = 1.0, p < 0.05. In conclusion we have demonstrated that: 1) The insulin-glucose infusion test and the eu(iso)glycaemic clamp were significantly correlated in normals, obese and NIDDM subjects. 2) Only the eu(iso)glycaemic clamp and insulin glucose infusion test could significantly separate obese from normal subjects. 3) the IGI appears to be a practical, simple and precise method for measuring in vivo insulin action in man and gives results closely similar to those found with the hyperinsulinemic eu(iso)glycaemic clamp.