The patient is a 28-year-old female with type-1 diabetes mellitus. She developed viral gastroenteritis with nausea and vomiting. She did not take her insulin and she became increasingly nonresponsive

Question

Her husband called 911 and she was taken to the emergency room. Her pulse rate was 128 and her respiratory rate was 28, deep, and smelled fruity (Kussmaul breathing). Her urinary glucose and ketone levels were both 4+. Her pH was dangerously low. Explain how the body attempted to compensate for the low serum pH.
What will be an ideal response

Answer 1

Ketosis leads to metabolic acidosis. The deep, rapid respirations were the body's attempt to compensate for the extremely low pH by blowing off CO2, resulting in less carbonic acid that in turn caused pH to rise.