Relationship between severity of hyperglycemia and metabolic acidosis in diabetic ketoacidosis

We evaluated 114 hospital admissions for diabetic ketoacidosis (occurring in 78 patients) retrospectively by using the Mayo Clinic medical records system. Initial plasma glucose and serum bicarbonate values were examined by using regression analysis. No correlation was found between these two measurements (r = -0.03). The reason for this dissociation between hyperglycemia and hyperketonemia needs further elucidation, but it may be related to impaired hepatic glucose production in some patients.