Mathematical analysis of blood glucose and plasma insulin responses to insulin infusion in healthy and diabetic subjects

The blood glucose and plasma insulin responses during slow intravenous infusion of insulin in six normal and seven diabetic subjects were fitted to a previously described model utilizing four first-order rate constants for the glucose-insulin interactions. Certain lumped parameters of the model were shown to be characteristic of the subjects' responses and abnormalities. The predicted values of blood glucose and plasma insulin can be made to approximate the actual measurement in all subjects. Additional studies are proposed to delineate further the range of applicability of the model and to characterize diabetic instability.