Clinical Disturbances of Vasopressin Secretion and Effects (Hypo- and Hypervasopressinism)

Abstract

As outlined in chapter 1.4 the dualistic system of regulation of vasopressin secretion and thirst acts in concert to maintain body fluid osmolality by modifying the volume of body water in which solute particles are dispersed (see Fig. 1.4). Anything that interferes with the full expression of either osmoregulatory function (being it an inborn error or acquired defect or, more often, a functional overload of these functions) exposes the patient to hazards of abnormities in the jealously guarded parallelism between body water and sodium content (Robertson et al. 1982).