[Contribution of plasma C-peptide to the classification of sugar diabetes in Dakar, Senegal].

When diabetes has been diagnosed, its classification into different types is traditionally carried out according to clinical criteria. But with arising of new parameters, one of which is C-peptide, and various subtypes of diabetes, it became more difficult. So, in order to improve the accuracy of the classification, 270 diabetic patients and 269 controls, all black senegalese subjects, were submitted to a two-step oral glucose tolerance test (0 and 120 min.) with determination of plasma glucose and C-peptide concentrations. The majority of NIDDM were confirmed at the opposite of IDDM; furthermore, it has been pointed out a group corresponding with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) among the initial controls. When comparing the two classification modes, before and after plasma C-peptide determination, it appeared statistically significant differences with p values of 10(-4) for both IDDM and NIDDM.