Diabetes Mellitus Complicated by Bacteremia Caused by Gram-Negative Bacilli

Infection is said to be the commonest acute complication of diabetes mellitus. Infections of the skin and of the respiratory and urinary tracts are the most frequently encountered of such complications.¹

In a recent review² of 137 patients at the Mayo Clinic who had bacteremia due to Gram-negative bacilli, it became apparent that such infections of the blood stream were also of significant occurrence in patients with diabetes mellitus. Of these 137 patients, 14 had diabetes. This association of diabetes and bacteremia caused by Gramnegative bacilli prompted us to make the present report in order to stress this coincidence.

General Data  The salient clinical and laboratory features in these 14 diabetic patients who had bacteremia caused by Gram-negative bacilli are recorded in the accompanying Table.The range of the patients' ages was 32 through 86 years; 6 patients were 70 years of age or older, and 12 were