This site is intended for healthcare professionals

Go to /sign-in page

You can view 5 more pages before signing in

Clinical features of diabetic ketoacidosis

Last reviewed dd mmm yyyy. Last edited dd mmm yyyy

Authoring team

Clinical presentation of DKA may vary according to the severity and comorbid conditions. The symptoms of diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) usually develop rapidly over 1 day or less and may include:

  • polyuria with polydipsia – commonest presenting symptom
  • weight loss
  • fatigue
  • dyspnea
  • vomiting
  • preceding febrile illness
  • abdominal pain
  • polyphagia

Patients may have tachycardia, poor skin turgor, dry mucous membranes, and orthostatic hypotension due to dehydration (1).

Deep (Kussmaul) respirations are seen as a compensatory mechanism for metabolic acidosis (1)

If severely ill, extreme cases may progress to shock, oliguria and anuria.

The breath may have a distinctive fruity smell - ketotic breath; however the ability to detect this smell is absent is a sizeable proportion of the population - and, by extrapolation, the medical population.

Mental status of patient may vary from confusion, drowsiness, progressive obtundation to loss of consciousness and coma (1,2)

Note:

  • nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain that may mimic an acute abdominal condition
  • DKA may rarely be precipitated by sepsis, and fever is not part of DKA

Reference:


Related pages

Create an account to add page annotations

Annotations allow you to add information to this page that would be handy to have on hand during a consultation. E.g. a website or number. This information will always show when you visit this page.