Avtor/Urednik		Kadiš, Peter; Balažic, Jože; Ferlan-Marolt, Vera
Naslov		Alcoholic ketoacidiosis: a cause of sudden death of chronic alcoholics
Tip		članek
Vir		Forensic Sci Int
Vol. in št.		Letnik 103, št. Suppl 1
Leto izdaje		1999
Obseg		str. S53-9
Jezik		eng
Abstrakt		In forensic medicine we often deal with cases of sudden death of chronic alcoholics from various aspects; above all we must establish the immediate cause of death. Most of the time the cause of death becomes clear from autopsies, histological, alcoholimetric and toxicological tests, but in a smaller number of cases it remains indeterminate even after these procedures. In our study we attempted to establish whether these cases of sudden death could be cases of alcoholic ketoacidosis. We studied 30 cases of sudden death of chronic alcoholics, for all of which autopsies, histological, alcoholimetric and toxicological tests had been performed, and for which we deternllned the beta-hydroxybutyrate concentration in bodily fluid samples (blood, urine, cerebrospinal fluid and vitreous humour). In the group with indeterminate cause of death (seven cases) the average measured concentration of beta-hydroxybutyrate in the blood, urine and vitreous humour was at least ten times higher than the concentrations in the group with clear causes of death, while the concentration of beta-hydroxybutyrate in the cerebrospinal fluid did not differ significantly between the two groups.
Deskriptorji		DEATH, SUDDEN ALCOHOLISM ACIDOSIS KETONE BODIES BODY FLUIDS MORTALITY SLOVENIA CAUSE OF DEATH FORENSIC MEDICINE