INSULIN-RESISTANT DIABETES MELLITUS ASSOCIATED WITH HEMOCHROMATOSIS

Abstract

The clinical course of a patient with a high degree of resistance to insulin is descr. Death apparently occurred directly or indirectly from a severe hypoglycemic reaction to insulin at a time when the patient''s resistance was decreasing. Hemochromatosis, discovered at autopsy, did not appear to play a part in the patient''s course. A series of insulin-tolerance tests indicated that resistance to human insulin was less marked than that to commercial insulin. The patient''s blood contained an insulin antagonist, presumably an antibody, demonstrable in mice. The patient was sensitive by skin test to both commercial and human insulins and the blood contained skin-sensitizing antibody for both.