DISTq: Low-cost, accurate and real-time estimation of insulin sensitivity

Abstract

Knowing insulin sensitivity (SI) can optimise glycaemic control, assess metabolic drug therapy, or define diabetes risk. The DISTq is a short, low dose IM-IVGTT that generates an estimate of SI immediately after a 40 minute test using only glucose measurements, subject's physical attributes, and population parameter estimations. In this article, the DISTq is evaluated in clinical and in silics trials. In clinical trials, the test has shown a very strong correlation to the fully sampled DIST SI (R=0.91), (which also uses insulin and c-peptide assays) and a strong correlation to the euglycemic hyperinsulinaemic clamp (EIC) in in silico virtual trials (R=0.89). This study shows that population estimates can reduce the need for expensive insulin and c-peptide assays in obtaining an accurate, real-time estimation of SI.