Control of renal excretion of water in man is largely vested in the supra-optico-hypophyseal system. When the tonicity of the blood plasma and extracellular fluid rises, an increased secretion of antidiuretic hormone (ADH) leads to the conservation of water inasmuch as urinary solutes are excreted with a minimum of water. Conversely, when tonicity falls, a diminution of ADH output permits the excretion of a large volume of dilute urine. In both instances homeostasis is served.Many stimuli, in addition to hypertonicity, increase ADH production, including certain anaesthetic (1) and narcotic drugs (2), barbiturates (3), smoking (4, 5) and nicotine (6, 7), acetylcholine (8), exercise (9), emotion (9), syncope ( 10), pain ( 11 ) and conditioned reflexes ( 11 ), as well as the direct electrical (12) or acetylcholine (13) stimulation of nerve cells and fibers connected with the pars nervosa of the pituitary gland. Removal of amounts of blood insufficient to alter blood pressure significantly may nevertheless lead to increased ADH activity (9). There is also suggestive evidence that there may at times be increased ADH activity in patients with cirrhosis of the liver (14,15).In contrast to the many factors which may lead to increased antidiuretic activity few other than destructive lesions involving the supra-optico-hypophyseal system and hypotonicity of the plasma and extracellular fluid have been reported to cause a decline in ADH activity. These are hypnotic suggestion (1), alcohol administration (16-18), and exposure to cold (19).1 Reviewed in the Veterans Administration and published with the approval of the Chief Medical Director. The statements and conclusions published by the authors are the result of their own study and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or policy of the Veterans Administration.It is the purpose of this communication to present evidence that a rather rapid isotonic expansion of extracellular fluid volume (or some factor associated with such a volume increase) leads to a water diuresis of the type which follows diminished ADH activity.
METHODSThe subjects were three essentially healthy male adults hospitalized for the investigation of minor symptoms for which no organic cause was found and which cleared rapidly. Without previous preparation2 they came to the laboratory one to two hours after breakfast, voided, and began the timed collection of urine specimens. When it became apparent that the flow of urine was diminishing, blood was collected without stasis from an antecubital vein after the arm had been immersed in hot water for five minutes to arterialize the blood (20), following which 3,000 ml. of 0.9 per cent solution of sodium chloride in water (Sp. Gr. 1.005 at 15°C.) was infused intravenously at a constant rate of 25 ml./min., the entire infusion requiring two hours. A blood sample was collected from the opposite arm immediately upon the completion of the infusion, and a third at a subsequent time. Urine was voided at intervals during and after the infusion, the subject standing for ...