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Low BMI, polypharmacy may be predictors of recurrent DKA

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AUSTIN, Texas — Polypharmacy and low BMI may be helpful in identifying people who are at risk for recurrent diabetic ketoacidosis and reduce health care cost burdens, according to results presented at the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists Annual Scientific and Clinical Congress.

“The cost of health care seems to be increasing every year with no corresponding improvement in health care statistics,” Vishal Sehgal, MD, of the department of endocrinology at the University of Tennessee in Memphis, told Endocrine Today. “In this context, any scientific study should focus on reducing the cost of health care besides reducing the morbidity and mortality. Otherwise, it loses significance and is meaningless.”

Sehgal and colleagues evaluated 116 patients with diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) admitted to a community hospital in Memphis from January 2013 to September 2015 to determine factors associated with recurrent DKA.

During the 33-month period, there were 349 admissions. Fifty-eight participants had one episode of DKA, whereas the remaining participants had multiple admissions. Recurrent DKA was found to be more common in participants with lower BMI, mean body weight and higher anion gap values in unadjusted analyses. However, in the multivariable analysis, BMI and polypharmacy were the strongest predictors of DKA.

“Our study has helped define two easily quantifiable markers of readmission to hospital in patients with DKA,” Sehgal said. “This could also be extrapolated in patients who get readmitted to the hospital for other disease pathologies. If validated in other studies, interventions may be designed to reduce the number of readmissions to the hospital in this population. This could potentially help save the health care system billions of dollars related to readmissions to the hospital.” – by Amber Cox

Reference:

Sehgal V, et al. Abstract #208. Presented at: AACE Annual Scientific and Clinical Congress; May 3-7, 2017; Austin, Texas.

Disclosure: Sehgal reports no relevant financial disclosures.