The plasma clearance rate of 131I-insulin in diabetic and obese patients and healthy persons.
The plasma clearance rate of 131I-insulin was studied in diabetic and obese patients and healthy persons. The aim of the investigation was to find out whether an accelerated degradation of insulin-probably due to the metabolism of insulin by adipocytes-causes slight forms of the diabetic syndrome. For the evaluation of the data a three-compartment model was used whereby the third compartment reflects the degradation of the intravenously administered 131I-insulin in the tissue. In this compartment 131I-insulin has a half life of 38.7 +/- 7.0 min for control persons (n = 19), 47.4 +/- 27.4 min for patients with a latent diabetes mellitus (n = 7), 34.2 +/- 8.5 min for the group with the subclinical diabetes (n = 5) and 47.6 +/- 16.2 min for the patients with an onset diabetes mellitus (n = 5). No significant difference was observed in the plasma clearance rate between healthy and diabetic persons. There is also no detectable correlation between the grade of obesity and the insulin clearance rate.