Syndrome of Inappropriate Antidiuresis

Abstract

IN their classic paper describing the clinical syndrome of inappropriate secretion of antidiuretic hormone (SIADH), Schwartz et al. deduced that the abnormal combination of hyponatremia with concentration of the urine and renal sodium wasting was probably due to sustained production of antidiuretic hormone (vasopressin) in the presence of increased water intake.¹ This deduction, based on previous findings that a similar combination of defects resulted from the administration of vasopressin and liberal amounts of water to normal subjects,² was confirmed many years later by the measurement of plasma vasopressin in patients with cancerous and noncancerous forms of the syndrome.³ From the . . .