Clinical Utility of the Meal Tolerance Test in the Care of Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.

Objective The measurement of C-peptide immunoreactivity (CPR) is essential for evaluating the pancreatic β-cell function and selecting appropriate therapeutic agents in patients with diabetes mellitus. The meal tolerance test (MTT) is simple to administer physiological insulin-stimulating test. Previous studies have reported that several CPR-related indices are useful markers for predicting insulin requirement in type 2 diabetes.

Late postprandial hypoglycemia due to bioactive insulin dissociation from autoantibody leading to unconsciousness in a patient with insulin autoimmune syndrome.

We report here the case of an 83-year-old man who was treated for unconsciousness and hypoglycemia (39 mg/dL) accompanied by marked elevation of serum immunoreactive insulin (IRI) (4,760 µIU/mL). We diagnosed his condition as insulin autoimmune syndrome (IAS, Hirata disease) because of a high insulin autoantibody (IAA) titer (>90%: bound/total) and no history of exogenous insulin administration. Reactive hypoglycemia occurred due to immediate association followed by dissociation between insulin and insulin autoantibodies after glucose or food intake.

Congenital portal systemic encephalopathy misdiagnosed as senile dementia.

Congenital portal systemic encephalopathy without liver cirrhosis and/or portal hypertension is rare. An 86-year-old man with senile dementia was admitted due to disturbance of consciousness. His serum ammonia level was high, but there was no evidence of liver cirrhosis or portal hypertension on laboratory tests and upper abdominal enhanced computed tomography (CT).