תקציר
Diabetic Ketoacidosis during the Ramadan Fast
I. Friedrich, Y. Levy
Dept. of Medicine A, HaEmek Medical Center, Afula, and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa
We report a 15-year-old Muslim boy with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) who presented with diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) during the Muslim Ramadan month of day-time fasting. DKA apparently occurred due to omitting pre-lunch insulin combined with dehydration and overeating during the permitted sunset-to-sunrise meals.
It is well-known that fasting accelerates development of lipolysis and ketosis and increases glucagon levels. Thus, these pathophysiological aberrations related to fasting in ketosis-prone patients, in conjunction with fasting, endanger metabolic control in IDDM.