What is lactic acidosis?

Lactic acidosis is extremely harmful. A small number of diabetic patients will develop this serious complication. Once lactic acidosis occurs, the patient's mortality rate is relatively high. Lactic acid is an intermediate product in glucose metabolism. The most common cause of lactic acidosis in diabetic patients is poor control of diabetes, serious complications, or other lesions in the body's organs.

Common causes of diabetic lactic acidosis include :

1. Poor control of diabetes;

2. Other acute complications of diabetes;

3. Diseases of other important organs;

4. Take a large amount of Jiangtangling;

5. Others such as carbon monoxide poisoning, salicylic acid, catecholamines, lactose excess, etc.

Lactic acidosis is one of the complications of diabetes. If it occurs and is not treated in time, the chance of death is very high. If diabetic patients experience symptoms such as diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal pain, confusion, low blood pressure, and difficulty breathing, they should go to a regular hospital as soon as possible to measure their blood lactate levels. If the blood lactate concentration is >2mmol/L, it is lactic acidosis, and the cause must be identified and treated as soon as possible. What causes lactic acidosis and how is it treated?

1. Causes of lactic acidosis

Lactic acidosis can be caused by congenital genetic defects or by various acquired factors. Lactic acidosis caused by genetic defects is relatively rare, while lactic acidosis caused by acquired factors is more common. There are two common causes of lactic acidosis, one is a mixture of tissue hypoxia (type A) and non-tissue hypoxia (type B), and the other is tissue hypoxia and non-tissue hypoxia.

1. Type A: 1) Decreased arterial oxygen content: Carbon monoxide poisoning and suffocation are the main causes of decreased arterial oxygen content. In addition, people with anemia and hypoxemia will also experience decreased arterial oxygen content. 2) Tissue hypoperfusion: Hypotension and reduced cardiac blood volume are one of the causes of tissue hypoperfusion. In addition, patients with increased vascular permeability may also experience tissue hypoperfusion.

2. Type B: 1) Genetic diseases: fructose 1, pyruvate carboxylase deficiency, oxidative phosphorylation defect; 2) Drugs or toxins: ethanol, methanol, niacin, catecholamines, isoniazid, streptozotocin, ***, estrogen deficiency, etc.; 3) Diseases: diabetes, sepsis, malaria and cholera, etc.; 4) Others: grand mal seizures.

2. Examination methods for lactic acidosis

Laboratory examination : lactate/pyruvate ≥ 30mmol/L, blood pyruvate reaches 0.2-1.5mmol/L, blood lactate level increases, blood ketone bodies slightly increase, blood pH decreases, anion gap expands, and plasma osmotic pressure is normal.