Clinical characteristics and outcomes of care in patients hospitalized with diabetic ketoacidosis

Aims

To assess the clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients hospitalized with DKA.

Methods

We examined the hospital database for patients admitted with DKA to all government hospitals in Qatar over 6 years.

Results

We evaluated a total of 1330 patients [(37.3 % with type 1 diabetes (T1DM) and 62.7 % with type 2 diabetes (T2DM)] with 1613 episodes of DKA. Patients with T2DM were older than those with T1DM [48.0 (38.0–60.0), 26.0 (21.0–31.0) years] while there was no difference in DKA severity and laboratory values on admission or time to resolution of DKA. Admission to the intensive care unit was higher (38.9 % vs. 26.6 %; P < 0.001) with a longer hospital stay [5 (2.0–9.0) vs. 2 (2.0–4.0) days, P < 0.001] and markedly higher mortality (7.4 % vs. 1 %; P < 0.001) in patients with T2DM compared to T1DM. On multivariable logistic regression analysis, significant predictors of mortality were older age (odds ratio, 1.11; 95 % CI, 1.07–1.15; P = 0.0001), and admission to the intensive care unit (odds ratio, 3.61; 95 % CI, 1.69–7.72;P = 0.001).

Conclusion

In this national cohort of patients hospitalized with DKA, those with T2DM had a 7-fold increase in inpatient mortality associated with older age and admission to the intensive care unit.

Other Information

Published in: Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
See article on publisher's website: https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.diabres.2022.110041