Studies of insulin resistance in patients with clinical and subclinical hyperthyroidism

ObjectiveAlthough clinical hyperthyroidism (HR) is associated with insulin resistance, the information on insulin action in subclinical hyperthyroidism (SHR) is limited.Design and methodsTo investigate this, we assessed the sensitivity of glucose metabolism to insulin in vivo (by an oral glucose tolerance test) and in vitro (by measuring insulin-stimulated rates of glucose transport in isolated monocytes) in 12 euthyroid subjects (EU), 16 patients with HR, and 10 patients with SHR.ResultsHR and SHR patients displayed higher postprandial glucose levels (area under the curve, AUC0–300 32 190±1067 and 31 497±716 mg/dl min respectively) versus EU (27 119±1156 mg/dl min, P