Resumo

BERMUDEZ, V; CANO, C; MEDINA, M  e  NUNEZ, M. Utilidad y ventajas del uso de modelos matemáticos en el estudio de la Insulinoresistencia y función de la célula Beta Pancreática. Homeostasis Model Assesstment (Homa): Fundamento y bases para su implementación en la práctica Clínica. AVFT [online]. 2001, vol.20, n.1, pp.43-51. ISSN 0798-0264.

Diabetic mellitus is a syndrome with disordered metabolism and inappropriate hyperglycemia due to either a deficiency of insulin secretion or to a combination of insulin resistance and inadequate insulin secretion to compensate. Type 2 diabetes is the most prevalent form and results from insulin resistance, mainly caused by visceral obesity, with a defect incompensatory insulin secretion. Various experimental methods and modelling approaches have been developed to assess in vivo insulin resistance in men, the hyperinsulinemic euglicemic glucose clamp technique is the "gold standard" for quantifying sensitivity in vivo, however, the glucose clamp is no easily applied in large scale investigations because IV infusion of insulin, frequent blood samples over a 3-h period, and continuous adjustment of a glucose infusion are required for each subjects studied. Homeostasis model assessment (HOMA) approach is one of the simplest methods that provide indices of insulin secretion and insulin resistance derived from fasting plasma glucose and fasting plasma insulin levels, thus, it can be reliably used in large - scale or epidemiological studies in which only a fasting blood sample is available to assess insulin sensitivity. Therefore, the ability to easily quantify insulin sensitivity in large number of subjects may be useful for investigating the role of insulin resistance in the pathophysiology of these major public health problems.

Palavras-chave : Mellitus diabetic; Resistance insulin; Hyperinsulinemic euglicemic clamp; Homa.