ECE2016 Symposia Disorders of development and function of neurohypophysis (3 abstracts)
Endocrinology, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
Copeptin and arginine vasopressin (AVP) derive from a common precursor molecule and show equimolar secretion and response to osmotic, haemodynamic and stress-related stimuli. Plasma concentrations of copeptin and AVP in relation to serum osmolality are highly correlated. In contrast to AVP, which can be difficult to measure, copeptin is stable in plasma and can be easily measured with a sandwich immunoassay. For this reason, copeptin has emerged as a promising marker for the diagnosis of AVP-dependent fluid disorders. This talk will focus on copeptin in the differential diagnosis of diabetes insipidus and primary polydipsia and on the prediction of diabetes insipidus in patients undergoing pituitary surgery.