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Diabetes 15, Diabetic Ketoacidosis (DKA)

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In addition to occurring in previously undiagnosed patients, ketosis may occur if insulin therapy is interrupted. This is another good reason why insulin therapy should never be stopped in type 1 DM. If no insulin is available, most tissues will switch to fat metabolism as they are unable to metabolise carbohydrates. It is this fat metabolism by the mitochondria, mostly in the liver, which generates the ketone bodies. Increased levels of acetone are formed in ketosis and accumulate in the blood. Acetone is a volatile substance and some of it is blown off in the expired air from the lungs. This causes the breath to smell of acetone; a smell usually described as being like 'pear drops'. Like most smells, once you have experienced it the first time you will immediately recognise it again.

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24 comments

  1. Anna Anna

    Dear Dr Campbell. Every evening, after all my chores are done, I watch your lectures. Your explanations are always the best, they supplement my nursing textbook reading so well. Thank you very much!

  2. Lawrence Fernham

    Good video, nice flow diagram haha! One thing I don’t get is the K+ situation; I thought K+ was pumped into the blood in order to balance the high H+ being produced, so you were HYPERkalaemic? I’m obviously wrong, but could you maybe explain this part of it a little bit more? Thank you!

    1. Lucas Glatthardt

      I share your thoughts. I guess it is really a relative thing. Some patients might develop hyper or hypokalemia depending on how much K+ is being lost in the urine and how much is going from the cells to the blood to trade that H+

  3. oluwasomiji

    Hello Dr. Campbell, thanks for the video, it is very helpful. My question is about the treatment for DKA. A text I was reading stated that …”if a patient is hypokalemic, insulin administration will further decrease the potassium level leading to life – threatening hypokalemia.” In this case, what should be done -hold off for the insulin-?

    1. Dr. John Campbell

      You are correct. Insulin gates both glucose and potassium into the cell cytosol from the tissue fluids and blood. Giving insulin will therefore lower glucose and potassium serum levels. It will therefore be usual to give insulin and potassium together, according to local protocols. This must of course be done very carefully, as rapid changes in potassium can lead to ventricular fibrillation. 

  4. Ella Cox

    Thank you Dr. Campbell! I really enjoyed this video! I wish you explained a little bit more about K inside the cell and outside the cell, and how K can be extracellularly elevated but depleted intracellularly.
    Thank you!

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