title: The occurrence of diabetic ketoacidosis in adults.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To analyze the occurrence of DKA in Chinese adults.
  
  
  METHODS
  We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of adults presenting with DKA in a tertiary referral center from January 1992 to December 1997. We classified these patients into 3 groups: type 1, type 2 and new-onset diabetes. Clinical features and follow-up treatment were analyzed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  One hundred and twenty patients with 141 episodes of DKA were included; 77 episodes (54.6%) were classified as being caused by type 2, 32 (22.7%) by type 1 and 32 (22.7%) by new-onset DM. The average age of type 2 patients was significantly higher. Of the 25 new-onset patients with follow-up for at least 12 months, 11 were not taking insulin. Of these 11 patients, 6 had a family history of DM and 5 had BMI greater than 26.4 kg/m2. The fasting plasma C-peptide values at various times of follow-up varied from 2.3 to 9.5 ng/ml in 6 of the 11 DKA-onset patients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In type 2 patients, the occurrence of DKA is usually associated with old age and another severe illness. "DKA-onset type 2 DM" reported in African-Americans and in Japanese is also observed in Chinese.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taiwan, ROC.
authors.forename: S H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.forename: W H
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Sheu
authors.forename: Y M
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: L N
authors.initials: LN
authors.lastname: Tseng
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D048909:Diabetes Complications; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000097:blood / Q000208:ethnology / Q000628:therapy; D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / Q000150:complications; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000150:complications / Q000208:ethnology*; D016883:Diabetic Ketoacidosis / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000209:etiology / Q000401:mortality; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology