Diabetes Insipidus in a Child With Erythromyelocytic Leukemia

Leukemic infiltration of the Meninges and brain is frequent in childhood leukemia.¹ Laakso² found 13 reports of diabetes insipidus in patients with leukemia, and only one of these was a child.³ Rosenzweig and Kendall⁴ have reported another patient with diabetes insipidus complicating acute leukemia. Malter et al⁵ described a 10-year-old child with diabetes insipidus complicating acute lymphocytic leukemia. Physiologic studies suggested local invasion of the posterior pituitary, but histologic confirmation of this was not available. We have studied and treated a child with erythromyelocytic leukemia who developed diabetes insipidus during the course of his disease. Localization of the leukemic infiltrate in the pituitary stalk was demonstrated.

Report of a Case  A 3-5/12-year-old white boy became ill in May 1963, with an enlarged abdomen and pallor. Massive hepatosplenomegaly, anemia, thrombocytopenia, spherocytosis, and hypercellular bone marrow with increased numbers of erythroblasts were the pertinent initial findings. A