ketoacidemia

English

Etymology

ketoacid +‎ -emia = keto- +‎ acid +‎ -emia.

Noun

ketoacidemia

1. (biology, medicine) The presence of ketoacids in the blood, as:
   1. (usually, especially) The presence of excessive ketoacids in the blood.

      Synonym: hyperketoacidemia

      Hypernyms: ketoacidosis, ketosis, hyperketosis

   2. (loosely) A hereditary disease that is due to deficiency of an enzyme involved in amino acid metabolism.

      Synonym: maple syrup urine disease

Usage notes

• Speaking precisely, ketoacidemia and hyperketoacidemia are findings in ketosis (hyperketosis), which has various forms (from various causes), chiefly diabetic ketoacidosis, alcoholic ketoacidosis, limited food intake (in intentional or unintentional forms), and maple syrup urine disease (branched-chain ketoaciduria). In loose usage, mentions of ketoacidemia without further specification sometimes are meant to refer to maple syrup urine disease.
• Pairs of terms such as ketoacidemia and hyperketoacidemia, as well as ketosis and hyperketosis, are examples of a theme in medical terminology whereby the hyper-prefixed counterpart is sometimes synonymous with its root, which in precise usage is hypernymic but in common usage can mean either the usual amount of something or the excessive amount, especially when the usual amount is so near zero that it is usually conceptualized as being zero. Thus, for example, the terms proteinuria and hyperproteinuria are usually synonymous in real-world usage because the amount of protein in the urine under healthy conditions is so small that it is conceptualized as zero, despite being nonzero from a molecular perspective.