Assessment of Clinical Signs, Laboratory Findings and Predisposing Factors in Diabetic Ketoacidosis Patients in Arak Vali Asr Hospital

Diabetic ketoacidosis is an acute complication of insulin dependent diabetes mellitus with high mortality rate. The aim of present study was evaluation of clinical signs, laboratory findings and predisposing factors of DKA in Arak Vali-asr hospital.

This investigation is a descriptive, cross-sectional study during 2 years on 30 patients with DKA with passion sampling method.

Twenty percent of patients were male and eighty percent were female. Majority of patients were on insulin (83.3%) but DKA was first presenting sign of diabetes in 16.6% of patients. Most common signs were fatigue and weakness (100%) and then gastrointestinal and pulmonary signs (96.6%) and decreased level of consciousness in 60%. Hyperkalemia was seen in 20% and hypokalemia only in 30.3%.

Trying for patient education and giving a wareness about primary and common sign of DKA will have an important role in decreasing mortality. Nobody had hypernatremia and only one patient had hyponatremia and only on one patient had hyponatremia.