The present invention encompasses a model-based method for determining
insulin sensitivity and glucose absorption from oral glucose tolerance
tests or mixed meals. The present invention has several advantages over
current methods. The technique requires about four to six blood samples
taken over about two to three hours following glucose ingestion and is
therefore applicable to large-scale clinical trials. The analysis
involves a reduced version of the classical minimal model, a method for
describing glucose absorption using only two parameters, and an integral
approach enabling the parameters to be obtained using simple algebra. The
present method robustly identifies differences in insulin sensitivity in
different patient types as well as improvements in insulin sensitivity
arising from pharmaceutic therapy. In addition, insulin sensitivity
measurements obtained with the present method are highly correlated with
results from hyperinsulinemic clamps (r.sup.2>0.8). This method is
therefore a practical and robust method for determining insulin
sensitivity under physiologic conditions.