General Uses and Considerations
The hyperinsulinemic hypoglycemic clamp is a variant of the glucose clamp technique designed to assess counterregulatory hormone responses under standardized conditions of experimental hypoglycemia. The hyperinsulinemic hypoglycemic clamp has been extensively used in studies of the pathophysiology of iatrogenic hypoglycemia. It is also used to study the effects of novel therapies intended to reverse or prevent hypoglycemia, e.g. novel formulations of glucagon, anti-insulin receptor antibodies. Glucose-lowering drugs that on theoretical grounds could impair the physiological response to hypoglycemia, e.g. by restraining increases in hepatic glucose production, can also be studied with a high degree of precision and reproducibility. This precision is possible using a bolus of insulin which would cause non-standardized reductions in blood glucose to potentially unsafe levels.
