Clinical, hormonal and imaging findings in 27 children with central diabetes insipidus

Abstract

Clinical, auxological, biological and neuroradiological characteristics of 27 children with central diabetes insipidus (CDI) were retrospectively analysed. Median age at diagnosis was 8.6 years (range: 0.3–16.1 years). Final aetiologies were postsurgical infundibulo-hypophyseal impairment (n=7), cerebral tumour (n=8), Langerhans cell histiocytosis (n=3), septo-optic dysplasia (n=1), ectrodactyly ectodermal dysplasia clefting syndrome (n=1), and idiopathic (n=7). In the non-postsurgical CDI patients, major cumulative and often subtle presenting manifestations were: polyuria (n=20), polydipsia (n=19), fatigue (n=11), nycturia (n=10), growth retardation (n=9), and headache (n=9). An associated antehypophyseal insufficiency, mainly somatotropic, was documented in 11 children. All patients except one who initially had a cerebral tomography, underwent magnetic resonance imaging revealing the lack of the physiological posterior pituitary hyperintense signal. One third of the idiopathic patients initially had a thickened pituitary stalk. All patients with idiopathic CDI were intensively followed up with 3-monthly physical examination, antehypophyseal evaluation, search for tumour markers, and cerebral MRI every 6 months. In one of them the pituitary stalk had normalized after 4.3 years. In one patient Langerhans cell histiocytosis was diagnosed after 7 months of follow-up, and in another patient a malignant teratoma was found after 2.4 years of follow-up. Conclusion: CDI may be the early sign of an evolving cerebral process. The association of polyuria-polydipsia should incite a complete endocrine evaluation and a meticulous MRI evaluation of the hypothalamo-hypophyseal region. A rigorous clinical and neuroradiologic follow-up is mandatory to rule out an evolving cerebral process and to detect associated antehypophyseal insufficiencies.