Diabetes insipidus in children. III. Anterior pituitary dysfunction in idiopathic types.

Seventeen patients with idiopathic diabetes insipidus occurring in childhood were observed from 4 to 26 years (mean duration 15 1/2 years). The diagnosis of idiopathic diabetes insipidus was based on routine clinical examination and careful, repeated neuroradiologic investigations. Anterior pituitary dysfunction was present in some of these patients. Growth hormone deficiency was present in six children, insufficient thyroid stimulating hormone secretion after thyrotropin-releasing hormone stimulation was demonstrated in one, and abnormal response to a metyrapone test in two. Elevated prolactin and TSH values were present in three and two patients, respectively. Some of these abnormalities were transitory. The presence of anterior pituitary dysfunction in idiopathic diabetes insipidus indicates that the destructive process is not localized to vasopressin synthesizing cells but may also involve other parts of the hypothalamus.