Blood ketone body disappearance rate in diabetics and normals after rapid infusion of dl-3-hydroxybutyrate. Studies before and after diabetic treatment.

Ketone body tolerance has been studied in 26 newly diagnosed diabetics and 9 normal control persons after rapid i.v. infusion of DL-3-hydroxybutyrate. In juvenile diabetics with high initial fasting concentrations of ketone bodies, disappearance rates of acetoacetate and total ketone bodies in blood were low before diabetic regulation. Insulin treatment normalized disappearance rates. In the non-obese maturity onset diabetics, on the other hand, ketone body disappearance rates remained abnormally low after treatment with glibenclamide. In the obese maturity onset diabetics, disappearance rates, being normal before diabetic regulation, decreased during phenformin treatment, the rate constants becoming significantly lower than in the normals. Decreased tissue uptake of ketone bodies thus seems to contribute to the increased ketone body level in blood in this group of diabetics. Disappearance rates were not correlated to preinfusion ketone body concentration. In the normals, no change in serum insulin was observed following the infusion, while a significant decrease was seen in plasma glucose.