OBJECTIVE To assess the acute effects of blood transfusion on insulin sensitivity and pancreatic β-cell function in thalassemia patients. METHODS Fifty children and adolescents with β-thalassemia/HbE disease were enrolled in a prospective cohort study. Hemoglobin, serum ferritin and oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) were performed prior to, and one week after blood transfusion. Insulin sensi...

AIMS To study the relationship between thioredoxin-interacting protein (TXNIP) and pancreatic β-cell function in patients with impaired glucose regulation and patients with both impaired glucose regulation and hypertriglyceridemia. METHODS We analyzed a population of 90 patients with impaired glucose regulation (IGR), 87 patients with IGR and hypertriglyceridemia, and 90 subjects with normal ...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The independent contribution of insulin resistance to atherosclerosis is still under debate. We compared associations of 2 different indices of insulin resistance, the Homeostasis Model Assessment (HOMA) index and kITT from a short insulin tolerance test with carotid atherosclerosis. METHODS A total of 1771 middle-aged white patients were investigated. Intima media thic...

Increased insulin resistance is a therapeutic target in patients with chronic liver disease. Branched-chain amino acids (BCAA) have been reported to improve insulin resistance in in vivo experiments. Thus, we investigated the effects of BCAA on insulin resistance in patients with chronic liver disease. Twelve patients with chronic liver disease were enrolled. Each patient was given one sachet o...

OBJECTIVE We sought to determine whether insulin resistance predicts the incidence and progression of coronary artery calcification (CAC). RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We studied 5,464 participants not on hypoglycemic therapy from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). Each had baseline homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) and baseline and follow-up CAC score...

OBJECTIVES To determine the relationship between body mass index (BMI), homeostasis model assessment insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) and insulinemia. METHODS This was a prospective cross-sectional observational study of 132 prepubescent schoolchildren residents in the municipality of Santo André, Brazil. Children underwent anthropometric assessment, their glycemia and insulinemia were measured a...

The aim of the present study was to establish a reference interval for homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) in a Japanese population based on the C28-A3 document from the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI). We selected healthy subjects aged 20-79 years, with fasting plasma glucose < 100 mg/dL, body mass index < 25 kg/m(2) and alanine aminotransferase < 31...

BACKGROUND It has been reported that waist circumference (WC) is a better predictor of cardiovascular risk factors than body mass index (BMI), although the findings have not been consistent. The aim of this study was to assess which measurement, BMI or WC, is more strongly associated with blood pressure, homeostatic model assessment (HOMA) and blood lipids in young Chilean adults. METHODS 999...