Hypopituitarism stabilizes the renal and retinal complications of diabetes mellitus.

In 1953, Poulsen described the remarkable case of a woman with type I diabetes mellitus who experienced resolution of her retinopathy following postpartum pituitary necrosis. Since that time, many investigators have pursued the hypothesis that anterior pituitary hormones, particularly growth hormone, play a role in the pathogenesis of the microvascular complications of diabetes mellitus. While most observers have demonstrated the importance of growth hormone in the initiation and progression of diabetic retinopathy, the role of growth hormone in the development of diabetic nephropathy has been more difficult to document. In this case report, we describe a woman with long-standing type I diabetes mellitus complicated by retinopathy and nephropathy whose complications stabilized as she developed growth hormone deficiency.