MDCast: DKA in Disguise | What Pregnancy Symptoms Hide

About this episode

The episode discusses the dangers of diabetic ketoacidosis in pregnancy and its often-masked symptoms.

In this episode of the FlightBridgeED OB Critical Care Transport series, Dr. Mike Lauria is joined by maternal-fetal medicine specialist Dr. Liz Gartner to tackle one of the most commonly missed and dangerous metabolic emergencies in pregnancy : diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). While DKA is familiar to most clinicians, pregnancy dramatically alters its presentation—often masking it behind symptoms that look indistinguishable from “normal” pregnancy complaints like nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, fatigue, and polyuria. The conversation breaks down the unique physiology of pregnancy that predisposes patients to DKA at much lower glucose levels than expected. Progressive insulin resistance, hemodilution, increased renal glucose losses, accelerated starvation, and baseline respiratory alkalosis combine to create a perfect storm where euglycemic or near-euglycemic DKA can develop. The result is a high-risk condition that is easy to dismiss unless providers intentionally look for it—especially in patients with type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, or gestational diabetes. From a transport and critical care perspective, the episode emphasizes early recognition, appropriate lab interpretation…

People in this episode

Host: Dr. Mike Lauria

Guest: Dr. Liz Gartner

Topics covered

• diabetic ketoacidosis
• pregnancy complications
• maternal-fetal medicine
• critical care transport
• metabolic emergencies

Keywords

• DKA
• pregnancy
• metabolic emergencies
• insulin resistance
• maternal resuscitation
• critical care
• lab interpretation

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: FlightBridgeED, Long Pause Media

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