Predictors of acute gastrointestinal bleeding in diabetic ketoacidosis: a retrospective observational study in minority population

Background Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) is a common acute complication of diabetes mellitus requiring aggressive medical management. We attempted to study the incidence and various clinical and laboratory variables associated with acute gastrointestinal bleeding (AGIB) and acute upper AGIB (AUGIB) in patients with DKA. Methods We conducted a retrospective chart review of all the patients admitted to our hospital with DKA between January 2010 and December 2015. We collected demographic, clinical, laboratory, endoscopy and hospitalization details using an electronic medical-record database. Patients were divided into two groups based on the occurrence of gastrointestinal bleeding. Results A total of 234 patients with DKA were admitted during this period, of which 27 (11.5%) patients had documented AGIB. The majority of patients had hematemesis (n=22, 9.4%) except two had rectal and three had occult bleeding. We did not notice any difference in age, gender and ethnicity distribution between the two groups. There was no difference in the serum levels of electrolytes, anion gap, pH and hemoglobin A1C between the two groups. However, patients with AGIB had significantly higher initial blood glucose levels (738 vs 613 mg/dL, p =0.014). There was also increased mortality (7.4% vs 4.8%) in patients with AGIB, but this did not reach statistical significance. Conclusion We conclude that higher initial serum blood glucose was associated with increased incidence of AGIB in patients admitted with DKA. We also noted increased in-patient mortality in patients with DKA who had AGIB, even though statistically insignificant. More aggressive measures to correct blood glucose levels may result in decreased incidence of AGIB, thereby reducing mortality during hospitalization in patients with DKA.