Three hundred and seventeen oral glucose tolerance curves have been analyzed by a mathematical model (Ackerman's model).
By application of the model to continuous venous infusion the validity of the Ackerman's hypothesis on the glucose intestinal absorption has been confirmed. The results demonstrated that the intestinal absorption rate of glucose was not statistically changed in diabetes mellitus, but decreased with age.
The period of curve T, which characterizes the glucose-insulin feed-back, the glucose fasting level and the coefficient α, which characterizes insulin removal rate independent of blood glucose and the decrease of blood glucose independent of insulin, resulted in significant differences between normal and diabetic subjects. The error involved in this method was about 7.5 per cent.
