Diabetes Glucose Tolerance Test

This chapter focuses on the application of the ordinary differential equation (ODE) numerical methods to a model for a diabetes glucose tolerance test. It considers features of the model and its numerical solutions that illustrate some basic properties of the ODE models. This model consists of just two ordinary ODEs in time and provides a clear and basic introduction to the physiological response from changes in glucose level, particularly through variations in the insulin level. The two ODEs for the glucose and insulin levels, G(t) and I(t), are represented in words followed by mathematical symbols. A similar analysis for the insulin mass balance is presented. The chapter considers an alternative numerical ODE integration using the fixed step RKF45 algorithm. The intent is to demonstrate that essentially the same solution is produced as the preceding solution from ODE.