D-Lactate: A Novel Contributor to Metabolic Acidosis and High Anion Gap in Diabetic Ketoacidosis

Abstract

To the Editor: Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA),the most common and serious acute complication of diabetes, is characterized by hyperglycemia and severe high–anion-gap metabolic acidosis with ketonemia (1). In DKA, the high anion gap is attributed largely to excessive production of blood ketone bodies, and serum β-hydroxybutyrate quantification is recommended for the diagnosis and monitoring of DKA (2). However, even counting of all the ketone bodies, including β-hydroxybutyrate, does not account for the entire anion gap, suggesting that there are additional sources of anion production in DKA. We recently demonstrated that plasma d-lactate concentrations were greatly increased in DKA compared with the concentrations in diabetic patients or a healthy control group (3). Nevertheless, the clinical value of d-lactate measurement in metabolic acidosis, especially the contribution of d-lactate to the metabolic acidosis and high anion gap in DKA, is not well appreciated. We report here that decreasing d-lactate concentrations are associated with improved clinical situations, whereas increased lactate concentrations are associated with the severity of metabolic acidosis and high anion gap …