Japanese cases of acute onset diabetic ketosis without acidosis in the absence of glutamic acid decarboxylase autoantibody

We report consecutive Japanese patients presented with acute onset diabetic ketosis who had negative glutamic acid decarboxylase autoantibody (GADAb) to clarify the clinical characteristics of them. A total of consecutive 1,296 in-patients with newly diagnosed diabetes mellitus, who were admitted to our center from April 2003 to October 2008, were analyzed. Among them, 17 patients who presented with acute onset diabetic ketosis without acidosis, and found to be negative for GADAb, were included. They showed male preponderance (n = 15). Ten patients had history of excessive ingestion of sugar-containing soft drink. Patients who successfully withdrew insulin therapy by 6 months (n = 7) showed significantly higher insulin secretion capacity and higher body mass index at the time of diagnosis than those who continued insulin therapy at least for 6 months (n = 10). These findings suggest that some of Japanese patients who presented with acute onset diabetic ketosis and negative for GADAb share several clinical characteristics with atypical type 2 diabetes such as ketosis-prone diabetes and “soft-drink ketosis,” but others do not.