Measuring and estimating insulin resistance in clinical and research settings

Abstract

The article discusses how to measure insulin resistance in muscle, liver, and adipose tissue in human participants. The most frequently used methodologies to evaluate insulin resistance are described in detail starting from the gold standard, that is, the euglycemic hyperinsulinemic clamp, to the intravenous glucose tolerance test, surrogate indices based on fasting measurements, or dynamic tests (such as oral glucose or mixed meal tolerance tests). The accuracy, precision, and reproducibility of the tests as well as cutoff values are reported.