Transient abnormality in carbohydrate metabolism during enterically transmitted non-A, non-B acute viral hepatitis

Blood glucose, plasma insulin and free fatty acids (FFA) responses, during the 2 h oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) with 75 g of dextrose, were measured in 30 consecutive patients with acute enterically transmitted non-A, non-B hepatitis. All of these parameters during the OGTT were compared with 10 age-, sex- and weight-matched healthy volunteers from the same community. The fasting blood sugar, insulin and FFA were not different from normal controls (P greater than 0.05). According to the WHO criteria, the blood glucose response during OGTT in these patients was normal in 23%, impaired in 33% and diabetic in 43%. There was significant hyperinsulinaemia (P less than 0.001) in patients with impaired and diabetic GGT and it persisted even at the end of 2 h. None of the abnormal liver function tests correlated with blood sugar, insulin and FFA response during the OGTT. All abnormal responses during the OGTT were, however, transient and returned to normal in all the patients after the recovery from acute hepatitis.