The usefulness of copeptin for the diagnosis of nephrogenic diabetes insipidus in infancy: a case report.

OBJECTIVES: We report a case of an infant with nephrogenic diabetes insipidus (NDI) diagnosed by the measurement of serum copeptin. There is only one study that previously evaluated the use of copeptin measurement in a pediatric patient.

CASE PRESENTATION: We present a 10-month-old child with polyuria-polydipsia syndrome (PPS) and hypernatremia that could not support water restriction due to increased risk of dehydration and worsening of his condition. Therefore, plasma measurement of copeptin allowed the diagnosis of NDI.

CONCLUSIONS: The water deprivation test (WDT) is considered the gold standard for diagnosis in PPS. However, WDT has serious limitations regarding its interpretation. Furthermore, the WDT can cause dehydration and hypernatremia, especially in young children. Therefore, the measurement of plasma copeptin seems to be a promising method to perform an earlier, safer, and accurate investigation of PPS. Up to now, our study is the second to report the usefulness of copeptin in children.