SHORT REPORT
Sudden death in a patient newly diagnosed with diabetes having hyperosmolar non-ketotic acidosis with sickle cell trait
1 St George’s Hospital, Tooting, London, UK
2 Department for the Medicine of Ageing, Chelsea & Westminster Hospital, London
3 Department of Histopathology, St Thomas’ Hospital, London
Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr O Biedrzycki
St George’s Hospital, Tooting, London SW17, UK; olafbiedrzycki{at}aol.com
Sickle cell trait (SCT) has a UK urban population rate estimated at 3.2%. The condition may remain unrecognised, but sudden death is a recognised feature. The sudden death of a 51-year-old man with SCT who presented with hyperosmolar non-ketotic acidosis (HONK) as his first presentation of diabetes is reported here. After admission to hospital, a rapid deterioration was seen in his condition, with loss of cardiac output, leading to death. He was found to have had acute-chest syndrome and hepatosplenic infarction on postmortem examination. The pathophysiology of sudden death in patients with SCT and the role of HONK in the patient’s demise is discussed here.
Abbreviations: HONK, hyperosmolar non-ketotic acidosis; RBC, red blood cell; SCD, sickle cell disease; SCT, sickle cell trait
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
- Full Text
- Full Text (PDF)
- Submit a response
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when eLetters are posted
- Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in this journal
- Similar articles in PubMed
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
