Cerebral syndromes of diabetes mellitus.

Three labile diabetic patients had recurring episodes of altered sensorium. Each had severe cerebrovascular disease with superimposed metabolic derangements, including ketoacidosis, hyperglycemia without ketosis, mild uremia, and possibly cerebral edema. Two of the patients were examined postmortem. Severe leptomeningeal scarring, basal ganglial calcification and destruction of small intracerebral vessels without evidence of large vessel atherosclerosis were found unexpectedly in one patient, a rare occurrence in this country although recently reported from Europe. The other patient had large vessel atherosclerosis only. The clinical expression of the vascular disease was modified by concurrent abnormalities and reflected the sum total of the complexities which coexisted. The pathophysiology of the unconscious state necessarily depends on the inciting factors. Ketoacidotic coma is associated with depressed cerebral oxygen consumption. Spinal fluid pH is usually maintained during ketosis but is sometimes lowered inadvertently during bicarbonate therapy, with resultant coma. Other variables influencing the clinical expression, with or without ketosis, would include, among others, blood viscosity alterations, rapid decrements in blood sugar, and existing degrees of lactic acidosis. The increasing life-span of the juvenile diabetics, favorably influenced by improved management and recently by hemodialysis, may uncover vascular complications heretofore rarely seen and create additional diagnostic and therapeutic enigmas.