Summary
The effect of intravenous injection of insulin on heart rate, plasma noradrenaline and urinary excretion rates of albumin and beta-2-microglobulin was examined in 10 long-term diabetics, 5 of whom had albuminuria. — In patients without albuminuria intravenous injection of insulin resulted in changes similar to but less pronounced than those previously observed in short-term diabetics: albumin excretion, plasma noradrenaline and heart rate increased, creatinine excretion decreased significantly. —Intravenous injection of insulin increased heart rate but not plasma noradrenaline in long-term diabetics with albuminuria. Arterial blood pressure did not change after insulin. Contrary to expectation insulin decreased urinary albumin excretion (from 418 to 312 μg/min, 27 per cent) in these patients. There was a marked decrease in urinary excretion rates of beta-2-microglobulin and creatinine (55 and 17 per cent, respectively) after insulin. — The decrease in albumin excretion after insulin in diabetics with albuminuria is most likely due to renal vasoconstriction. The absence of a rise in albumin excretion after insulin may be due to severe morphological changes in glomeruli in these patients.
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Christensen, N.J., Gundersen, H.J.G., Mogensen, C.E. et al. Intravenous insulin decreases urinary albumin excretion in long-term diabetics with nephropathy. Diabetologia 18, 285–288 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00251006
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00251006