Clinical Studies of Alcoholic Ketoacidosis

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Abstract
Seven episodes of severe ketoacidosis in six nondiabetic patients were recognized at this hospital within an eighteen month period. All were women; one pregnant patient experienced two episodes at twenty-eight and thirty-two weeks' gestation. All patients admitted to heavy chronic alcohol intake and drinking binges. On admission, these patients were conscious and alert. Mean values were 143 mg./100 ml. for plasma glucose and 7.25 for arterial pH. Plasma bicarbonate was depressed with a mean anion gap of 18. Beta-hydroxybutyrate/acetoacetate ratio averaged 5.2. All patients had liver function abnormalities. Mean serum immunoreactive insulin was low, 5μU./ml. (n=2), while cortisol was markedly elevated at 76.5μg. per cent (n=3); mean growth hormone level was 14.1 ng./ml. (n=3). Free fatty acid concentration, measured on admission in one episode, was 1,945 mEq./L. Therapy with glucose, saline, and minimal amounts of alkali led to prompt recovery. Circulating levels of cortisol, insulin and growth hormone were measured serially in one patient during recovery; they quickly returned to normal. The dissociation of severe ketosis from glycosuria and hyperglycemia in these patients raises important questions concerning coupling of ketogenesis to gluconeogenesis. The striking preponderance of women, including one pregnant patient, reported with this condition also suggests a possible role for ovarian and placental hormones in its pathogenesis; fetal drain on carbohydrate reserves may further contribute to the tendency to ketosis. Alcoholic ketoacidosis may be relatively common, since we saw one case of this syndrome for about every four of diabetic ketoacidosis during this period.

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