Etiologies of central diabetes insipidus in Thai children

In order to determine the etiologies of central diabetes insipidus (DI) among Thai children, we retrospectively reviewed records of 67 patients (44 male and 23 female) between the age of 0.1 and 15.6 years (mean age 5.5 years) who were diagnosed with central DI at the Pediatric Endocrinology Unit, Siriraj Hospital, Bangkok, Thailand between 1996 and 2003. Etiologies were found to be central nervous system (CNS) malformations in 20 patients (29.8%), post resection of intracranial tumors and cysts in 17 patients (25.4%), intracranial tumors in 11 patients (16.4%), cerebral palsy of unknown cause in five patients (7.5%), infection in four patients (6%), and Langerhans cell histiocytosis in three patients (4.5%). In another seven patients (10.4%), the cause was considered to be idiopathic. This study revealed that CNS malformation was the most common etiology, followed by intracranial tumors and their treatment. A thorough investigation to rule out CNS lesions needs to be done before considering the diagnosis of idiopathic central DI.