Insulin resistance is a problem with the cells in your body not utilizing insulin well. This includes any insulin; either the kind your body produces on its own (endogenous), or the type you inject (exogenous). Either way, your cells don’t ‘absorb’ insulin efficiently; quite often, this is often a yellow flag for developing diabetes later in life.
The test for IR is the ‘HOMA IR’ test; it includes your insulin and glucose levels. The data regarding insulin resistance and its subsequent effect on HCV treatment is fairly new, and I don’t think there’s a firm consensus or body of knowledge available yet… only select studies showing a better response for patients that manage IR.
If insulin resistance is found, it can be addressed with a combination of diet, exercise, weight management and drugs such as metformin, pioglitazone etc.
I’d definitely discuss this with your doctor, and get his view on it; if he’s abreast of the latest studies, he should be aware of this. Additionally, there’s no harm done watching IR as part of general health management anyway, regardless of HCV status. No point in letting type 2 diabetes into your life if it can be avoided; it’s a real drag to manage, I know from personal experience :o).
If you haven’t found it yet, there’s a page in this forum that has most of the acronyms used here; you can find it in the section ‘Most Viewed Health Pages’, listed as ‘common Hepatitis C acronyms’; or you can follow this link:
http://www.medhelp.org/health_pages/Hepatitis/Common-Hepatitis-C-Acronyms/show/3?cid=64
Take care—
Bill