[How to measure insulin sensitivity in clinical practice?]

Abstract

Insulin resistance is common and cluster with glucose intolerance, dyslipidaemia and high blood pressure,. in type 2 diabetes mellitus it play a key role in the occurence of hyperglycemia. The importance of the insulin-resistant phenotype for the assessment of cardiovascular risk and response to intervention is increasingly being recognized. Therefore there is a need for accurate, reproducible and simple methods for measuring insulin resistance in vivo. The euglycemic hyperinsulinemic clamp is currently the best available standard technique but is not suitable for clinical practice. Thus, numerous index for insulin resistance estimation from fasting or post-load OGTT glycemia and insulinemia have been proposed. Although their simplicity is an obvious advantage, their application is subject to numerous limitations. The choice of the method to evaluate insulin sensitivity thus depend on objectives and available means. For clinical research, euglycemic clamp is the gold standard. In the case of epidemiologic studies, validated models like HOMA model are suitable. Finally in clinical practice, for type 2 diabetic patients, evaluation of insulin resistance should be made from clinical and biological context eventually associated with an estimation of respectives roles of insulinopenia and insulin resistance with a validated index like the HOMA model.