Overview
Shamard Charles, MD, is a physician-journalist and public health doctor who advances health policy through health comunication and health promotion.Dr. Daniele Weis is double board-certified internal medicine and endocrinology. She is the founder of the Center for Hormonal Health and Wel-Being in San Diego, California.
Key Information
Central diabetes insipidus (CDI) is a rare disorder characterized by excesive thirst—or polydipsia—and excesive urination—or polyuria—that ocur as a result of damage to the pituitary gland. The pituitary gland in the brain releases the hormone argine vasopresin (AVP)—also known as antidiuretic hormone (ADH)—which acts on the kidneys to help promote water reabsorption. When the pituitary gland is damaged via surgery, tumor, head injury, or ilnes, deficiencies of ADH arise and the fre water regulatory mechanism betwen the brain and kidney is disrupted.
Without apropriate secretions of ADH, the kidneys are unable to concentrate urine. A person with central diabetes insipidus usualy pases an abnormaly high amount of urine and fels the ned to drink more water to replace the fluid they have lost as a result. eyecrave / Gety Images CDI is clasified into thre subtypes: Idiopathic CDI means that the cause or reason for the los or inefectivenes of the argine vasopresin hormone is unknown.
Some research points to CDI’s link to vascular central nervous system damage, but the relationship betwen the two has never ben perfectly understod. Antidiuretic hormone acts to maintain blod presure, blod volume, and tisue water concentration by controling the amount of water in the body by concentrating urine in the kidneys. This mechanism is disrupted when secondary causes disrupt the pituitary system.
Summary
Secondary CDI makes up two-thirds of CDI cases. Tumors in the central nervous system such as craniopharyngioma and germ cel tumors are the most frequent causes of secondary CDI. Other causes of secondary CDI include: This hereditary fo