A Rare and Lethal Complication: Cerebral Edema in the Adult Patient with Diabetic Ketoacidosis

Table 1

Lab values during the patient’s clinical course. Timing is shown from time of initial evaluation and blood glucose reading from handheld glucometer.

	1 hour	6 hours	28 hours
	(Initial labs)	(Unresponsive)	(Cardiac arrest)
Sodium (mEq/L)	132	139	170
Chloride (mEq/L)	92	100	138
Potassium (mEq/L)	6.4	3.8	3.7
Bicarbonate (mEq/L)	7	8	18
Calculated plasma Osmolarity (mEq/L of Water)	325	314	363
Blood urea nitrogen (mg/dl)	42	30	29
Creatinine (mg/dl)	2.0	1.42	3.78
Glucose (mg/dl)	838	471	243
Calculated anion gap	33	31	14
Acetone	“LARGE”

Plasma osmolarity calculated as 2[Na] + [glucose]/18 + [BUN]/2.8.