A Pregnant Woman with Excess Vasopressinase-Induced Diabetes Insipidus Complicated by Central Diabetes Insipidus like Lymphocytic Infundibulo-Neurohypophysitis

Abstract

Background. Gestational diabetes insipidus (DI) is a very rare complication of pregnancy. We present a case of gestational DI combining two different types of DI. Case Presentation. A 39-year-old pregnant woman suddenly presented with thirst, polydipsia, and polyuria after 31 gestation weeks (GWs). Based on laboratory findings of hypotonic urine (78 mOsm/kgH2O) with higher plasma osmolality (298 mOsm/kgH2O) and higher serum sodium levels (149 mEq/L), gestational DI was suspected, and the clinical course was monitored without therapy until the results of a measurement of plasma arginine vasopressin (AVP) levels were available. However, she subsequently developed acute prerenal failure and underwent an emergency cesarean section at 34 GWs. Her resected placenta weighed 920 g, nearly twice the normal weight. Immediately following delivery, intranasal 1-desamino-8-D-arginine vasopressin was administered, and her symptoms promptly disappeared. Afterward, her predelivery plasma AVP level was found to have been inappropriately low (0.7 pg/mL) given her serum sodium level. The patient’s serum vasopressinase level just before delivery was 2,855 ng/mL, more than 1,000 times the upper limit of the normal range, suggesting excess vasopressinase-induced DI. The presence of anti-rabphilin-3A antibodies in the patient’s blood, a hypertonic saline infusion test result, and loss of the high-intensity signal of the posterior pituitary on fat-suppressed T1-weighted magnetic resonance images without thickening of the stalk and enlargement of the neurohypophysis suggested concurrent central DI-like lymphocytic infundibulo-neurohypophysitis (LINH). Conclusion. In addition to the degradation of AVP by excess placental vasopressinase due to the enlarged placenta, an insufficient compensatory increase in AVP secretion from the posterior pituitary gland due to LINH-like pathogenesis might have led to DI symptoms.