Diabetes insipidus: a physiologic approach to diagnosis.

Diabetes insipidus can be delineated in the context of the normal physiology of water metabolism. This approach highlights the common pathway taken by the variety of diseases that can progress to an insufficiency of antidiuretic hormone (ADH) and to diabetes insipidus. A simple diagnostic approach uses homeostatic pathways to separate diabetes insipidus from the other polyuric states. New developments in the biochemical alteration of ADH have improved the ability to individualize hormonal replacement and promise better therapy in the near future.