Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Diabetic ketoacidosis is a frequent cause of morbidity and mortality among diabetics. The annual incidence and the mortality from this condition in Libyan diabetics have not been studied before. Aim and objectives: The aim of this study was to estimate the incidence of diabetic ketoacidosis and the its mortality rate at Benghazi city. Patients and methods: a descriptive retrospective analysis of the records of all patients admitted with diabetic ketoacidosis to all Benghazi hospitals (governmental and private) between 1st of January and 31st of December 2007. Results: the annual incidence of diabetic ketoacidosis was 41.7 episode/100 000 populations with a mean age of 33±20.1 years (2–93). Around 52% of all the episodes occurred in males and 2.6% of adult DKA occurred in pregnant females. Type-2 diabetics were responsible for 27.7% of all episodes. The commonest precipitating factor in the whole study group was dose disruption (35%) followed by infection (20%). The commonest presenting symptoms were the gastrointestinal, whilst 3.5% of the patients were comatose at presentation. The overall mortality was 11.7% and there was no significant difference in mortality between males and females (11% vs. 12.6%, P=0.6) however type-2 diabetics showed a significantly higher mortality rate (29.3% vs. 4.9%, P=0.000). The died patients were significantly older with longer duration of diabetes and higher rate of co-morbidities and they had significantly faster respiratory rate, lower blood pressure, higher urea and platelet count at presentation. Conclusion: diabetic ketoacidosis is a common condition in Libya with a high mortality rate and type-2 diabetics constitute a considerable number of the cases.

Declaration of interest: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest that could be perceived as prejudicing the impartiality of the research project.

Funding: This research did not receive any specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sector.