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To the Editor: The causes for growth retardation accompanying nephrogenic diabetes insipidus in children have been related directly to polyuria and polydipsia (Hillman et al: Pediatrics 21:340, 1958); the same relationship has been postulated in patients with diabetes insipidus who respond to exogenous vasopressin (Vest, M. D.; Talbot, N. B.; and Crawford, J. D.: Amer J Dis Child 105:175,1963). Decreased secretion of antidiuretic hormone may characterize some or all of the latter group.
A decreased caloric intake in such patients, noted as long ago as the turn of the century (Weil, A.: Deutsch Arch Klin Med 93:180, 1908), is responsible for the ensuing "hypocaloric dwarfism" (Talbot et al: New Eng J Med 236:783, 1947). A decreased solute intake lessens water intake; the latter is in turn a consequence of the fact that diminished urinary secretion of solutes commands decreased excretion of water. In addition, decreased solute intake may decrease plasma