Diabetes-17

There are a number of acute complications.

Diabetic ketoacidosis

Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) is an acute and dangerous complication that is always a medical emergency. Lack of insulin causes the liver to turn fat into ketone bodies for use as fuel. This is normal when periodic, but can become a serious problem if sustained. Elevated levels of ketone bodies in the blood decrease the blood's pH, leading to DKA. On presentation at hospital, the patient in DKA is typically dehydrated, and breathing rapidly and deeply. Abdominal pain is common and may be severe. The level of consciousness is typically normal until late in the process, when lethargy may progress to coma. Ketoacidosis can become severe enough to cause hypotension, shock, and death. Urine analysis reveals significant levels of ketone bodies (which spill over from the blood when the kidneys filter blood) well before overt symptoms. Prompt, proper treatment usually results in full recovery, though death can result from inadequate or delayed treatment, or from complications. Nevertheless, DKA is always a medical emergency and requires medical attention. Ketoacidosis is much more common in type 1 diabetes than type 2.

Nonketotic hyperosmolar coma

Hyperosmolar nonketotic state (HNS) is an acute complication sharing many symptoms with DKA, but an entirely different cause and different treatment. In a person with very high blood glucose levels (usually considered to be above 300 mg/dl (16 mmol/l)), water is drawn out of cells into the blood by osmosis and the kidneys dump glucose into the urine. This results in loss of water and an increase in blood osmolarity. If fluid is not replaced (by mouth or intravenously), the osmotic effect of high glucose levels combined with the loss of water will eventually lead to dehydration. The body's cells become progressively dehydrated as water is taken from them and excreted. Electrolyte imbalances are also common and dangerous. As with DKA, urgent medical treatment is necessary, especially volume replacement. Lethargy may ultimately progress to a coma, which is more common in type 2 diabetes than type 1.

Hypoglycemia

Hypoglycemia, or abnormally low blood glucose, is an acute complication of several diabetes treatments. The patient may become agitated, sweaty, and have many symptoms of sympathetic activation of the autonomic nervous system resulting in feelings similar to dread and immobilized panic. Consciousness can be altered or even lost in extreme cases, leading to coma, seizures, or even brain damage and death. In patients with diabetes, this may be caused by several factors, such as too much or incorrectly timed insulin, too much or incorrectly timed exercise (exercise decreases insulin requirements) or not enough food (specifically glucose-producing carbohydrates), but this is an over-simplification.

It is more accurate to note that iatrogenic hypoglycemia is typically the result of the interplay of absolute (or relative) insulin excess and compromised glucose counterregulation in type 1 and advanced type 2 diabetes. Decrements in insulin, increments in glucagon, and, absent the latter, increments in epinephrine are the primary glucose counterregulatory factors that normally prevent or rapidly correct hypoglycemia. In insulin-deficient diabetes (exogenous) insulin levels do not decrease as glucose levels fall, and the combination of deficient glucagon and epinephrine responses causes defective glucose counterregulation.

Furthermore, reduced sympathoadrenal responses can cause hypoglycemia unawareness. The concept of hypoglycemia-associated autonomic failure (HAAF) in diabetes posits that recent incidents of hypoglycemia causes both defective glucose counterregulation and hypoglycemia unawareness. By shifting glycemic thresholds for the sympathoadrenal (including epinephrine) and the resulting neurogenic responses to lower plasma glucose concentrations, antecedent hypoglycemia leads to a vicious cycle of recurrent hypoglycemia and further impairment of glucose counterregulation. In many cases (but not all), short-term avoidance of hypoglycemia reverses hypoglycemia unawareness in most affected patients, although this is easier in theory than it is in practice.

 In most cases, hypoglycemia is treated with sugary drinks or food. In severe cases, an injection of glucagon (a hormone with the opposite effects of insulin) or an intravenous infusion of dextrose is used for treatment, but usually only if the person is unconscious. In hospitals, intravenous dextrose is often used.

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