[Diabetes insipidus as an early clinical manifestation of pineal tumor]

OBJECTIVE: To present a pineal tumor diagnosed after long clinical course of diabetes insipidus.CASE REPORT: A ten years old male patient, with symptoms of polyuria, polydipsia and nocturia for 18 months was admitted at the Nephrology Unit with the diagnosis of nephrogenic diabetes insipidus. Six months prior to his admission, he had been submitted to a computed tomography scan, which was considered inconclusive. The diagnosis of central diabetes insipidus was confirmed by a water deprivation test. A head magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated two masses suggesting germinoma.CONCLUSIONS: Our observations show that patients with central diabetes insipidus need close clinical, laboratory and neuroradiological follow-up in order to detect the intracranially tumors in an early stage.