Oral Carbohydrate Tolerance Tests

Much has been reported concerning tolerance to orally administered carbohydrates under a variety of conditions. However, still more data have been needed to answer certain questions having pertinence to clinical practice. These studies were designed to provide further clarification concerning four of these questions: (1) What is the relationship between the response to a test meal and the response to oral glucose in the same individual? (2) To what extent are the results of the oral glucose tolerance test affected by variations in the dose of oral glucose? (3) To what degree are oral glucose tolerance tests reproducible from day to day? (4) To what extent does aging affect oral glucose tolerance and the fasting blood glucose? Methods Blood glucose determinations were performed on venous blood by employing the Autoanalyzer of Technicon. This procedure measures "true" blood glucose by employing a principle described by Hoffman. 1 In order to determine