Question

What are the chief functions of vasopressin and what happens during its oversecretion?

Answer 1

Vasopressin, also called antidiuretic hormone, hormone that plays a key role in maintaining osmolality (the concentration of dissolved particles, such as salts and glucose, in the serum) and therefore in maintaining the volume of water in the extracellular fluid (the fluid space that surrounds cells). This is necessary to protect cells from sudden increases or decreases in water content, which are capable of interfering with proper cell function. Normal serum osmolality ranges from about 285 to 300 milliosmoles per kilogram (mOsm/kg) in healthy people. Vasopressin and a hormone called oxytocin evolved from a single primodial neurohypophyseal hormone called vasotocin, which is present in lower vertebrates.

Vasopressin excess of the syndrome of inappropriate ADH secretion due to a variety of causes promotes water retention, hypoosmolality and hyponatremia which, if untreated, may progress to convulsions, coma, and death. It is obviously important to diagnose accurately these pathologic states of hydration. Not only is initiation of treatment in general dependent upon recognition of the disease, but each type of pathologic hydration state has specific treatment which rewards both patient and physician with effective correction of the problem.