The oral sodium tolbutamide test (OSTT) for diabetes was significantly different in 102 normal, twenty-one borderline, and twenty-nine diabetic subjects as classified by the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). Mean thirty-minute values, in per cent of FBS, were 57.0, 72.3, and 86.2, and mean forty-minute values were 44.1, 60.3, and 79.4 in the three groups, respectively.
Individual agreement between the OSTT and OGTT was generally good, though with some conflicts.
Effective blood levels were attained ten minutes after oral administration of sodium tolbutamide, 2.0 gm., and at twenty minutes and beyond levels exceeded those after intravenous administration of 1.0 gram. Hypoglycemic response to the intravenous and oral tests appeared comparable except for a lag of about ten minutes and attainment of lower blood sugar levels at forty and sixty minutes after oral administration. Reproducibility was good, except in those subjects with initial conflict between the OSTT and OGTT.
