The renal handling of insulin was studied by insulin immunoassay in arterial blood, renal venous blood, and urine of fasting patients with normal renal function and in peripheral venous blood and urine of normal subjects and patients with renal disease before and after an oral glucose load. A renal arteriovenous insulin concentration difference of approximately 29% was found and suggests that in normal subjects renal insulin clearance is significantly in excess of glomerular filtration rate. The insulin excreted in the urine of normal individuals at no time exceeded 1.5% of the load filtered at the glomerulus. This contrasts with the finding of a urinary insulin clearance approaching glomerular filtration rate in patients with severely impaired renal tubular function.
