Retrospective analysis of insulin responses to standard dosed oral glucose tests (OGTs) via naso-gastric tubing towards definition of an objective cut-off value.
Abstract: Insulin dysregulation (ID) with basal or postprandial hyperinsulinemia is one of the key findings in horses and ponies suffering from the equine metabolic syndrome (EMS). Assessment of ID can easily be performed in clinical settings by the use of oral glucose challenge tests. Oral glucose test (OGT) performed with 1 g/kg bodyweight (BW) glucose administered via naso-gastric tube allows the exact administration of a defined glucose dosage in a short time. However, reliable cut-off values have not been available so far. Therefore, the aim of the study was to describe variations in insulin response to OGT via naso-gastric tubing and to provide a clinical useful cut-off value for ID when using the insulin quantification performed with an equine-optimized insulin enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results: Data visualization revealed no clear separation in the serum insulin concentration of insulin sensitive and insulin dysregulated horses during OGT. Therefore, a model based clustering method was used to circumvent the use of an arbitrary limit for categorization. This method considered all data-points for the classification, taking into account the individual insulin trajectory during the OGT. With this method two clusters were differentiated, one with low and one with high insulin responses during OGT. The cluster of individuals with low insulin response was consistently detected, independently of the initialization parameters of the algorithm. In this cluster the 97.5% quantile of insulin is 110 µLU/mL at 120 min. We suggest using this insulin concentration of 110 µLU/mL as a cut-off value for samples obtained at 120 min in OGT. Conclusions: OGT performed with 1 g/kg BW glucose and administration via naso-gastric tubing can easily be performed under clinical settings. Application of the cut-off value of 110 µLU/mL at 120 min allows assessment of ID in horses.
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The research article is mainly about defining a reliable cut-off point for an oral glucose test (OGT) conducted via naso-gastric tubing to diagnose insulin dysregulation (ID) in horses.
Research topic and objective
The research is focused on the common issue of Insulin Dysregulation (ID) in horses and ponies, which is typically characterized by basal or post-meal high insulin levels, and is symptomatic of Equine Metabolic Syndrome (EMS).
The oral glucose test (OGT) is a method used to assess ID in clinical settings – the test is performed by administering a fixed dosage of glucose (1g per kg of body weight) via a naso-gastric tube.
One of the problems with the OGT is that there has been no reliable cut-off point established in the past, which the researchers aim to accomplish in this study.
The study method and results
The researchers aimed to detail variations in insulin responses following an OGT conducted via naso-gastric tubing and find a useful clinical cut-off value to determine ID.
The test employed an equine-optimized insulin enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for insulin quantification.
Visualization of data revealed no clear distinct separation in the serum insulin concentrations of insulin sensitive and insulin dysregulated horses during the OGT.
To overcome the lack of a clear distinction, the researchers used a model-based clustering method – a technique that considered all data points for categorization, and factored in unique insulin trajectories during the OGT.
This method identified two clusters of horses: one with low insulin responses and another with high insulin responses.
The researchers have proposed an insulin concentration of 110 µLU/mL at 120 minutes as a cut-off point based on consistent results from the cluster of horses exhibiting low insulin response.
Conclusions and applications
The study has demonstrated that the OGT performed with a glucose dosage of 1 g per kg body weight via naso-gastric tubing is a feasible method for clinical settings.
The defined cut-off value of 110 µLU/mL at 120 minutes provides a useful measure for assessing ID in horses, thereby aiding efficient diagnosis and management of EMS in horses.
Cite This Article
APA
Warnken T, Delarocque J, Schumacher S, Huber K, Feige K.
(2018).
Retrospective analysis of insulin responses to standard dosed oral glucose tests (OGTs) via naso-gastric tubing towards definition of an objective cut-off value.
Acta Vet Scand, 60(1), 4.
https://doi.org/10.1186/s13028-018-0358-8
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