Clinical Significance
Ketone body production increases significantly when the rate of glucose metabolism is insufficient in meeting the body's energy needs. Such conditions include high-fat ketogenic diets, diabetic ketoacidosis, or severe starvation.
Under elevated levels of acetoacetate and D-β-hydroxybutyrate, acetoacetate decarboxylase produces significantly more acetone. Acetone is toxic, and can accumulate in the body under these conditions. Elevated levels of acetone in the human breath can be used to diagnose diabetes.
Read more about this topic: Acetoacetate Decarboxylase
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“Of what significance the light of day, if it is not the reflection of an inward dawn?—to what purpose is the veil of night withdrawn, if the morning reveals nothing to the soul? It is merely garish and glaring.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)