Ketoacidosis, Hypertriglyceridemia and Acute Pancreatitis Induced by Soft Drink Polydipsia in a Patient with Occult Central Diabetes Insipidus.

A 21-year-old Japanese man without known diabetes mellitus had abdominal pain. The diagnosis was ketoacidosis and hypertriglyceridemia-induced acute pancreatitis. He had polydipsia and polyuria and had habitually drunk several soft drinks every day for two years. After hospitalization, despite adequate liquid intake, dehydration remained with hypotonic polyuria. Further examinations revealed the coexistence of central diabetes insipidus (CDI), possibly caused by lymphocytic infundibulo-neurohypophysitis, based on anti-rabphilin-3A antibody positivity. Although CDI had been undiagnosed for two years, over-consumption of sugar-rich soft drinks to ease thirst caused ketoacidosis, hypertriglyceridemia, and acute pancreatitis. There are no previous reports of this three-part combination of symptoms caused by CDI.

Selectivity on ion transport across bilayer lipid membranes in the presence of gramicidin A.

Ion transport from one aqueous (W1) to another (W2) across bilayer lipid membranes (BLM) containing gramicidin A (GA) was investigated by recording current fluctuations, when various alkali metal chlorides and potassium salts were used as supporting electrolytes. The magnitude of the single-channel current at a given membrane potential depended on not only the cationic species, but also on the anionic species, and then it decreased with an increase in the diameter of the anion when the diameter of the anion was larger than the pore size of the GA channel. The baseline of the recording current, however, increased with an increase in the diameter of the anion, and its height depended on the concentration of GA in the BLM. The results indicate that GA serves as not only a channel-forming compound, but also as a carrier compound in the BLM.