Correction of an Inappropriate ADH Syndrome by Tumor Resection

Abstract

Paraendocrine or humoral syndromes associated with tumors of nonendocrine origin have received a great deal of attention in the past decade. Several of the more striking symptom complexes or syndromes include hypoglycemia, polycythemia, hyperthyroidism, hypercalcemia, Cushing's syndrome, and the "inappropriate" antidiuretic hormone (ADH) syndrome, the latter most commonly observed with bronchogenic carcinoma. In the past few years, several well described cases of lung tumor associated with the "inappropriate" secretion of ADH have appeared in the literature.^1-18 Although the occurrence of hyponatremia with carcinoma of the lung was first noted and described by Winkler and Crankshaw¹⁹ in 1938, it was not until 1957 that Schwartz et al¹ further elucidated the pathogenesis of the syndrome with experimental evidence of the "inappropriate" secretion of ADH. The present report describes a patient in whom a bronchogenic carcinoma was resected resulting in complete correction of associated "inappropriate" antidiuresis. The syndrome subsequently reappeared