I have talked little about my side as a bioanalyst but today I want to share with you about this case. I want to start talking a little about insulin, this is a hormone that is produced in the pancreas and its main function is to regulate blood glucose levels.
Without insulin, an excessive accumulation of glucose occurs and hyperglycemias occur, resulting in diseases such as diabetes. It may happen that the pancreas does not produce insulin or that it produces but in very small amounts. All of these are attacked differently.
There are also other diseases that alter the functioning, production and storage of insulin such as thyroid problems, which is why many patients arrive in the laboratory with thyroid profile tests (T3, T4, TSH) in the company of insulin.
There is even a relationship in patients who have polycystic ovary syndrome and a possible alteration with insulin metabolism. As long as the symptoms are referred to as dark spots in the folds of the body, among many more.
For this case that I want to share with you today, it is a 48-year-old female patient. She reports that she is not diabetic, with no history of hyperglycemia or hypoglycemia, controlled hypertension with a gynecologist's order. Possible pre-menopausal process.
Special tests to be performed; thyroid profile, basal and postpandrial insulin.
It is important to note that for postpandrial tests patients must eat, in the
Last bite begins to count the 2 hours or those indicated by the doctor, you should stay calm without doing any physical activity. 5 minutes after finishing the 2 hours, he goes to the laboratory to take the sample.
This information is explained in detail to the patient who requires this type of study. In this case, the basal sample is taken and after 2 hours the postpandrial sample. The patient reports that "I keep rest during the 2 hours."
Once the samples were centrifuged, I proceeded to perform my tests. The insulin test has a processing time of approximately 1 hour and 25 minutes. Once I got my results, I noticed that the patient got the
Altered postpandrial result, indicating a low value.
In these cases I always wonder
How a seemingly normal patient throws some alteration his results. Well, on many occasions the answer is very easy and it is not any pathology, because if the patient does not rest in the two hours these alterations occur.
This is because, if it is in motion, the body burns more energy, there is a greater caloric expenditure, so the various metabolisms increase. This causes the insulin in the blood to degrade faster, thus throwing falsely low values.
This is why it is important that patients follow the recommendations given by health personnel to ensure correct results. On many occasions it is not the laboratory's mistake, it is the fault of the same patient many times without knowing what.
