Diabetic Lipemia

DIABETIC lipemia (milky plasma), first described in the nineteenth century, remains a well recognized but rare manifestation of uncontrolled diabetes mellitus. Although prompt diagnosis and insulin treatment have probably reduced the incidence of hyperlipemia in symptomatic diabetes, reports of this poorly understood syndrome continue to appear.1 2 3>Since lipemia may be associated with varying degrees of carbohydrate intolerance in a wide spectrum of patients, the term "diabetic lipemia" will be restricted to describe the lipemia associated with severe symptomatic diabetes. This lipemia characteristically is abolished by insulin treatment. The patient with this clinical syndrome should be readily distinguished from the . . .