Blood Glucose Area Under the Curve: Methodological Aspects

To specify the influence of methods used in estimating area under the curve (AUC) and the meaning of total and incremental AUC, 75 glycemic responses to a mixed meal were studied in 75 diabetic patients, 39 with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus and 36 with non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. AUC was integrated with five computerized methods: polynomial interpolation of third and fourth degree, trapezoidal rule, Simpson9s integration, and cubic interpolatory splines. Although these methods gave significantly different results ( P r > 0.99, P r = 0.90, P r = 0.12 and 0.07, respectively, NS). Incremental and positive AUC were strongly correlated with glycemic rise ( r = 0.89 and 0.93, respectively, P r = 0.31, P