Vasopressin-Resistant Diabetes Insipidus

Abstract

In 1947 Williams and Henry¹ introduced the term "nephrogenic" to describe a form of diabetes insipidus in patients whose symptoms were not relieved by the administration of vasopressin. The disease had been mentioned in 1923 by Veil,² who noted the same lack of response in some of his patients. The published literature until 1945 describing this type of diabetes insipidus (as well as the ordinary type in which vasopressin is effective) was reviewed by Forssman,³ who also included eight cases of his own. The supposition that the kidney was at fault was made by Williams and Henry¹ on the basis that renal function was found to be somewhat impaired in the patient whom they studied. They found the renal plasma flow (R. P. F.), the maximal tubular excretion (Tm) of iodopyracet (Diodrast), and the urea clearance to be low, in addition to subnormal renal concentrating powers