Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome Complicating Severely Uncontrolled Diabetes Mellitus: Report of Nine Cases and a Review of the Literature

We report the occurrence of the adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in association with uncontrolled diabetes in nine patients. In reviewing the literature we found nine similar cases reported in little over a decade. In most cases no condition known to precipitate ARDS was discovered. The evidence suggests that the severely uncontrolled diabetic state in some way may initiate pathologic events leading to the capillary leak of ARDS. This description of the association of these two entities not commonly recognized as occurring simultaneously has important clinical implications: the entity should be anticipated in uncontrolled diabetic patients who present with acidosis, hypotension, hypothermia, and/or coma. The clinical or radiologic diagnosis of pneumonia or fluid overload should not be made in the uncontrolled diabetic patient in the absence of unequivocal evidence of infection or congestive heart failure. The development of dyspnea, hypoxemia, rales, or infiltrates in the otherwise routine resuscitation of these patients should lead the clinician to suspect the development of ARDS. Prompt invasive monitoring in these cases is indicated to aid in their management and may help to improve survival. We found calculation of the A-a gradient to be useful in patients with uncontrolled diabetes. Although not necessarily predictive, widened gradients were the earliest detectable abnormality found in all patients who developed ARDS.