Explain Glucose tolerance test curve?
The curve is a plot between glucose conc. in the Y axis and the time at which we measure Blood glucose on the x-axis. Fasting level before intake of glucose load is 70-110 mg% and then after glucose load, due to absorption of glucose, the level increases up till reach maximum after 1 hr ( >140mg%) with insulin release the glucose level drops gradually till reaching the fasting level. In some cases the insulin may over-shoot (released in high dose) and thus may even lower glucose below fasting level ( a good sign, that the pancreas is releasing insulin even in more than that needed) this is called reactive hypoglycemia which will be corrected by release of glucagon to compensate for this oversecretion of insulin so the glucose returns to fasting level.
