Vasopressin: a review of therapeutic applications.

b i t m t p h g a ASOPRESSIN (VP) WAS DISCOVERED in 1895 from the extract of the posterior pituitary and named for the arly observation of its vasoconstrictive properties.1 The eptide is present in various species, both invertebrate and ertebrate, with only minor variations in amino acid seuence. Human VP contains the amino acid arginine, hence he name arginine vasopressin. It is alternatively referred to s antidiuretic hormone (ADH), reflecting its main physioogic function in promoting water retention. (For the remainer of the text, the term vasopressin and the abbreviation VP ill be used in lieu of arginine vasopressin or antidiuretic ormone.) Since its isolation2 and synthetic preparation,3 VP has een the subject of much research. Its clinical applications ange from the management of enuresis to the treatment of astrointestinal hemorrhage, septic shock, cardiac arrest, nd heart failure. The purpose of this review is to provide an verview of the physiology and pharmacology of this horone and its various functions. As with much in medicine, he discovery of disease states involving VP and/or its eceptors has offered the most insight into VP’s in vivo role nd functional repertoire. As such, an appraisal of these onditions will be used to review current knowledge and linical applications of VP and its synthetic agonists and ntagonists. Unanswered questions and future research oportunities will then be summarized.