Insulin Levels in Myotonic Dystrophy

Abstract

To the Editor: Huff et al.¹ described changes in insulin secretion in six hospitalized patients with dystrophia myotonica, and compared them with normal controls. They found a high fasting insulin level in the patients (mean, 32.4 μU per milliliter, S.E.M., 3.1) as compared with controls (mean, 9.3 μU per milliliter, S.E.M., 1.3). They also found remarkably high levels of insulin in patients after both oral and intravenous administration of glucose as compared with controls.I became interested in these findings, and tried unsuccessfully to repeat the results, during a genetic survey of dystrophia myotonica.I studied 11 patients with established . . .