THE STANDARD TWO-HOUR ORAL GLUCOSE TOLERANCE TEST IN THE DIAGNOSIS OF DIABETES MELLITUS IN SUBJECTS WITHOUT FASTING

T H E convenience of the standard two-hour oral glucose tolerance test has led to its widespread use as a means of detecting early derangements of carbohydrate metabolism in individuals with normal fasting blood sugars. In adequately prepared subjects, failure of the blood sugar to return to 100 mg. % ("true glucose") within two hours after an oral glucose load is commonly interpreted as evidence of diabetes mellitus or "prediabetes. " x Despite this, the diagnostic specificity for diabetes mellitus of modest eleva-tions in two-hour blood sugar level has never been established. The pos-sibility exists, therefore, that normal persons are being mislabeled as dia-betics by a strict adherence to the above criterion. The purpose of this report will be to review briefly the literature on this subject, and to present the results of a study designed to evaluate the spe-cificity of the above criterion for the two-hour oral glucose tolerance test in the diagnosis of diabetes mellitus. REVIEW OF LITERATUR