Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) is a state of metabolic acidosis brought on primarily by insulin deficiency. The condition can affect patients with type 1 or type 2 diabetes.
It is important to know that for a diabetic who is developing ketoacidosis, this serious medical condition can escalate quickly. Essentially, the patient’s body, in need of insulin, turns to fat instead of glucose for energy. In turn, ketone bodies — molecules produced by the liver as an energy source from free fatty acids — accumulate in the bloodstream within hours. Ultimately, this build-up results in lower blood pH, causing a range of consequences from kidney failure and respiratory distress to coma or death.
Invokana (canagliflozin), Farxiga (dapagliflozin), and Jardiance (empagliflozin) are sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors, a class of prescription medicines that are FDA-approved for use with diet and exercise to lower blood sugar in patients with Type 2 diabetes.
This March 17, 2016 MedPage Today report, “Canagliflozin in T1D Has Ketoacidosis Problem”, provides a good overview of a recent medical study which found that patients need to be closely watched for ketoacidosis when Invokana is prescribed “off-label” to patients with Type 1 diabetes.
For more detail, see the underlying study article, “Diabetic Ketoacidosis With Canagliflozin, a Sodium–Glucose Cotransporter 2 Inhibitor, in Patients With Type 1 Diabetes”, which was published by the medical journal Diabetes Care on March 17, 2016.
From the Abstract for this article:
OBJECTIVE To assess the incidence of serious adverse events (AEs) of diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) with [Invokana (canagliflozin)], a sodium–glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitor, as an add-on to insulin in adults with type 1 diabetes.
CONCLUSIONS [Invokana (canagliflozin)] was associated with an increased incidence of serious AEs of DKA in patients with type 1 diabetes inadequately controlled with insulin. Mitigation strategies are needed for use in future clinical trials to reduce the risk of DKA with [Invokana (canagliflozin)] treatment in patients with type 1 diabetes.
We will continue to monitor this still-emerging drug safety issue and report significant developments here.
[Read this article in full at original source]
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