Correlation of oral glucose tolerance test-derived estimates of insulin sensitivity with insulin clamp measurements in an African-American cohort

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine which measures obtained from an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) are the best estimates of insulin sensitivity measured directly using the euglycemic hyperinsulinemic clamp procedure. Data were examined from a study conducted on 307 young adult African-American men and women. An OGTT with insulin measurements was conducted after a 12-hour overnight fast. The euglycemic hyperinsulinemic clamp was used to measure insulin-stimulated glucose uptake (M) directly. Pearson’s correlation analyses were performed to examine the relationship of OGTT-derived parameters with insulin sensitivity measured using the clamp. There were consistent statistically significant correlations between calculated estimates of insulin sensitivity (fasting insulin/fasting glucose, summed insulin/summed glucose, homeostasis model assessment [HOMA], Quantitative Insulin Sensitivity Check Index [QUICKI]) with insulin sensitivity measured by the insulin clamp ( P < .001). The calculated estimates that correlated most strongly with clamp measured insulin sensitivity were QUICKI and the logarithm of summed insulin during the OGTT. These data indicate that fasting and OGTT-derived plasma insulin and glucose concentrations can be used to estimate insulin sensitivity in young adult African-Americans when it is not feasible to conduct the insulin clamp procedure. Calculated indices that include log transformation of plasma insulin concentration improve the estimation of insulin sensitivity.