Unsupervised subjects classification using insulin and glucose data for insulin resistance assessment

In this paper, the K-means clustering algorithm is employed to perform an unsupervised classification of subjects based on unidimensional observations (HOMA-IR and the Matsuda indexes separately) and multidimensional observations (insulin and glucose samples obtained from the oral glucose tolerance test). The goal is to explore if the clusters obtained could be used to predict or diagnose insulin resistance or are related to the profiles of the population under study: metabolic syndrome, marathoners and sedentaries. Using two and three clusters, three classification experiments were carried out: i) using the HOMA-IR index as unidimensional observations, ii) using the Matsuda index as unidimensional observations, and iii) using five insulin and five glucose samples as multidimensional observations. The results show that using the HOMA-IR index the clusters are related to insulin resistance but when multidimensional observations are used in the classification process the clusters could be used to predict the insulin resistance or other related diseases.