The short insulin tolerance test is a simple method of estimating insu
lin resistance by measuring the rate of fall of blood glucose followin
g the intravenous administration of insulin. To determine its reproduc
ibility, 18 healthy subjects underwent duplicate insulin tolerance tes
ts separated by at least 1 week. Intravenous insulin (0.05 units kg-1)
was administered into an antecubital vein and arterialized venous sam
ples were obtained from a retrogradely cannulated vein on the dorsum o
f the hand on the same side. The test was terminated with an intraveno
us glucose injection 15 min after the administration of insulin. The m
ean whole blood glucose concentration fell from 4.6 mmol l-1 to 2.8 mm
ol l-1 while plasma insulin concentrations rose to supraphysiological
leveLs and decLined exponentially. The glucose disappearance rate (K(i
tt)) calculated from the slope of the fall in log transformed blood gl
ucose between 3 and 15 min after insulin injection ranged from 2.1 to
6.5 (mean 4.4) % min-1 during the first visit and 1.7 to 7.4 (mean 4.4
) % min-1 during the second. The ratio of the within-subject to betwee
n-subject variance of the test was 0.24, the within-subject coefficien
t of variation was 13 % and the between-subject coefficient of variati
on 26 %. The short insulin tolerance test is reproducible and could be
used to measure insulin resistance in large-scale epidemiological stu
dies.