Observations on the metabolism of a subject of diabetes

Abstract

The subject of the observations was a patient in the service of Dr. Warren Coleman in Bellevue Hospital. Different known diets were used and the urine was analyzed over a period of more than three months. A portion of the results of the last part of the period is given in the accompanying table. The unusual features of these results will be briefly discussed.

Between twenty and eighty grams of total β-oxybutyric acid (the acetone and diacetic acid being calculated as β-oxybutyric acid) were excreted each day for at least eighty days without any signs of impending coma. For more than two months with this severe acidosis the subject showed practically complete carbohydrate intolerance. As shown in the table the diet was then changed to 255 grams of oatmeal. On this diet the acidosis and the glycosuria decreased very much, the former ultimately disappearing. This comparatively sudden transition from a condition of severe to one of mild diabetes is very striking and appears to confirm the good results obtained by von Noorden and others with his so-called “oat cure.”