Hypoglycaemia due to an insulin-receptor antibody in Hodgkin's disease.

Severe fasting hypoglycaemia developed in a patient with Hodgkin's disease after many courses of chemotherapy. Her serum contained a factor which stimulated glucose uptake by rat adipocytes, and this factor was found in the immunoglobulin fraction. The serum also displaced insulin bound to human erythrocytes and both precipitated and phosphorylated insulin receptors extracted from human placenta. The insulin-like substance is probably an antibody to the insulin receptor.