Diagnostic Tools For Insulin Resistance: A Narrative Review

Abstract Insulin resistance (IR) plays a key role in the pathogenesis of various metabolic disorders such as metabolic syndrome (MS) and type 2 diabetes mellitus. As the gold-standard technique to assess IR is invasive and time-consuming, various surrogate markers have been developed over the years; however, each has its own merits and demerits. The purpose of this narrative is to describe the various tools available to assess IR, including the latest additions. Online electronic databases like PubMed, Medline, Scopus, Embase, and Google Scholar were used as sources for searching the research articles. Keywords used for the search were as follows: diagnostic markers, Insulin Resistance and Metabolic Syndrome. A total of 195 related publications were screened, out of which 46 quality papers were reviewed. A total of nine diagnostic tools of IR, namely, hyperinsulinemic euglycemic glucose clamp, fasting insulin, glucose/insulin index, insulinogenic index, homeostatic model assessment, quantitative insulin sensitivity check index, triglyceride glucose index, minimal model analysis of the frequently sampled intravenous glucose tolerance test, and estimated glucose disposal rate were reviewed.