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Diabetic Ketoacidosis

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Therapy of Renal Diseases and Related Disorders

Abstract

The term diabetes (a siphon, in Greek) was coined by Aretaeus the Cappadocian during the second century AD as a description of the polyuria that accompanies this disease. He graphically described the illness as “a melting down of the flesh and limbs into urine,” associated with an unquenchable thirst, nausea, and vomiting, and rapid death (1). Even before Aretaeus, Egyptian physicians writing in the Papyrus Ebers described polyuria that, in retrospect, may have been the osmotic diuresis of diabetes mellitus. Thomas Willis (1621–1675), namesake of the Circle of Willis, noted the sweet taste of the urine and attributed the increasing incidence of diabetes in England to “good fellowship and gusling down chiefly of unallayed wine.” Matthew Dobson during the later half of the eighteenth century published a case report of a young man with diabetes and performed experiments on the urine, finding both protein and sugar. He observed the patient’s serum and noted that it was also sweet and rather opaque.

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Authors
  1. Horacio J. Adrogué
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  2. Jorge Barrero
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  3. George M. Dolson
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Baylor College of Medicine, The Methodist Hospital, Houston, Texas, USA

    Wadi N. Suki

  2. Division of Nephrology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA

    Shaul G. Massry

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© 1991 Kluwer Academic Publishers

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Adrogué, H.J., Barrero, J., Dolson, G.M. (1991). Diabetic Ketoacidosis. In: Suki, W.N., Massry, S.G. (eds) Therapy of Renal Diseases and Related Disorders. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-0689-4_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-0689-4_11

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