Patients with hypopituitarism may present with many different signs and symptoms which result from reduced secretion of one or more of pituitary hormones. Severe hyponatremia and hypoglycemia are rare but potentially life threatening presenting clinical features of hypopituitarism. As these abnormalities are completely restored with replacement therapy and patients are often undiagnosed until admission, a high clinical suspicion Is necessary to diagnose a patient 1 with hypopituitarism. We present five cases exhibiting rare symptoms of hypopituitarism-severe hyponatremia, hypoglycemia and osteoporosis-as the only presenting feature; these cases illustrate that hypopituitarism must be considered In the differential diagnosis of these abnormalities, especially in older patients.
C1 Inonu Univ, Fac Med, Dept Internal Med, Div Endocrinol & Metab, Malatya, Turkey.