Vasopressin levels in infants during the course of aseptic and bacterial meningitis

G. Padilla, M. G. Ervin, M. G. Ross and R. D. Leake
Department of Pediatrics, UCLA School of Medicine.

We measured urine vasopressin (VP) once daily on days 1 through 3 in 18 patients hospitalized with meningitis. Urine VP values were 215 +/- 100, 116 +/- 44, and 69 +/- 23 pg/mL on days 1 through 3, respectively, for children with bacterial meningitis and 34 +/- 14, 20 +/- 4, and 15 +/- 4 pg/mL for those with aseptic meningitis. Urinary VP levels of infants with bacterial meningitis were significantly greater than those of healthy ambulatory subjects (n = 18) on all three study days; VP values of infants with bacterial meningitis were also greater than those of infants with aseptic meningitis on study days 2 and 3. The VP levels for the subjects with aseptic meningitis were significantly greater than those of the controls on day 1 only. None of the infants exhibited the clinical syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone secretion.