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Diabetes insipidus represents a serious disease that dramatically interferes with the everyday life of patients due to the need to constantly replenish of fluid lost in the urine, which comes amid shortage of synthesis, secretion or action of pituitary hormone vasopressin. The main difficulty is the differential diagnosis of types of diabetes insipidus in patients with the syndrome of polydipsia-polyuria as the correct differential diagnosis of these forms predetermine the safety and efficacy of further treatment. This lecture presents the current concepts of etiology, diagnosis and treatment of central diabetes insipidus (CDI). We give the comparative characteristics of various preparations of desmopressin for the treatment of the central form of the disease. We also consider the features of the management of selected patient populations with CDI: during pregnancy and lactation, pathology of the thirst sensation, after traumatic brain injury and neurosurgery.

The incidence of leukoses upon long-term administration of tritium oxide to Wistar rats increased by 15.6% as compared to 2.1% in controls. The repeated injection of bacterial lipopolysaccharide caused a 2.3-fold increase in the occurrence of hemoblastosis induced by the radionuclide mainly due to the increase in the proliferative activity of haemopoietic precursors because of the increased demand for mature cells.

In experiments with CBA mice it was shown that the long-term influence of tritium oxide administered with drinking water daily during 180 days (370 kBq.g-1 of body mass, cumulative dose 8.7 Gy, dose rate 4.5 cGy.day-1) causes the development of immunity deficiency 90 days after the onset of the administration that persists for up to 270 days. There is a 34% decrease in the average life of irradiated animals and an increase in the number of malignant neoplasms (postmortem examination was performed after natural death or killing on days 250, 350 and 450). There is a direct relationship between the occurrence of malignant neoplasms and the immunity deficiency.

In experiments with Wistar rats, a study was made of the content of antibody-forming cells and cytotoxic activity of normal killers after long-term administration of tritium oxide (3HOH) (370 kBq.g-1 of body mass daily, cumulative dose, 8.1 Gy, and dose rate, 8.5 cGy/day), and after gamma irradiation with corresponding doses. The long-term radiation effect caused a decrease in the immunity indices: the impairment of the immune reactions was more pronounced after the effect of 3HOH than after gamma irradiation. Damages to the immune system of mice and rats after irradiation with similar doses were compared.

A study was made of lethal and mutagenic effects on extracellular phage lambda of beta-particles from tritiated water and of [3H-methyl]-thymidine incorporated into DNA. It was shown that the mean lethal dose D10 and the yield of c-mutations per unit of the dose absorbed during external beta-irradiation in 3H2O or during the decay of incorporated [3H-methyl]-thymidine were equivalent to those obtained during 60Co-gamma-irradiation in 4% nutrient broth or at a dried state respectively.