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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Journal of Diabetes and Endocrine Practice 2019; 02(01): 1-3
DOI: 10.4103/jdep.jdep_12_18
Original Article

Clinical profiles and precipitating factors for diabetic ketoacidosis at a tertiary center in Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Saira Abbas
Department of Internal Medicine, Diabetology Unit, Rashid Hospital, Dubai Health Authority, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
,
Zufana Nazir
Department of Internal Medicine, Diabetology Unit, Rashid Hospital, Dubai Health Authority, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
,
Touseef Azhar
Department of Internal Medicine, Diabetology Unit, Rashid Hospital, Dubai Health Authority, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
,
Abeer Alhaj
Department of Internal Medicine, Diabetology Unit, Rashid Hospital, Dubai Health Authority, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
,
Khadija Hafidh
Department of Internal Medicine, Diabetology Unit, Rashid Hospital, Dubai Health Authority, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
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Objectives: Our aim was to assess the clinical profiles and determine the precipitating factors for diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) in adult patients admitted to a tertiary care center in United Arab Emirates (UAE). Materials and Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of all patients admitted with DKA at a tertiary care hospital in UAE during June 2014–December 2017. Variables recorded included gender, type of diabetes, and HbA1c on presentation and identified precipitating factors. Results: Data from a total of 255 patients with DKA were analyzed. One hundred and fifty-seven of these patients had type 1 diabetes (61.6%) whereas 69 patients were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) (27.1%), and 22 patients could not be classified as type 1 or type 2. A small number of patients (2.7%) were found to have secondary diabetes as their DKA was precipitated by acute pancreatitis. Around 12% of cases occurred in the setting of newly diagnosed diabetes. The most common precipitating factor for DKA was noncompliance to treatment (31.4%), followed by infections (22.7%). Pancreatitis was another important precipitating factor which accounted for 6.3% of the cases. Conclusions: DKA is not limited to patients with T1DM, and there seems to be a steady increase in its occurrence in patients with T2DM. Noncompliance to therapy is a major precipitating factor which needs to be addressed by offering better education programs to prevent hospitalization of these cases.

Keywords

Diabetes - diabetic ketoacidosis - hospitalizations - pancreatitis - precipitating factors - type 1 diabetes - type 2 diabetes

Financial support and sponsorship

Nil.




Publication History

Received: 10 November 2018

Accepted: 19 April 2019

Article published online:
08 June 2022

© 2019. Gulf Association of Endocrinology and Diabetes (GAED). All rights reserved. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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