DIABETES-INSIPIDUS AND BLINDNESS CAUSED BY A SUPRASELLAR TUMOR - PAUW,PIETER OBSERVATIONS FROM THE 16TH-CENTURY

Tumors in the suprasellar region may cause both visual and endocrinolo gic symptoms. This association, well known to modern physicians, was e stablished during the 19th century. However, we have identified a 16th -century autopsy report, written by the Dutch professor of anatomy Pie ter Pauw (1564-1617), which describes an 18-year-old girl who develope d marked polyuria and subsequently became totally blind from a cystic tumor compressing the optic chiasm. Based on prevailing theories on th e nature of diabetes, Pauw attributed the disease to the kidneys. Undo ubtedly, however, his lucid report is the earliest known account of di abetes insipidus caused by an arachnoid cyst, the Rathke cleft cyst, o r craniopharyngioma in the region of the pouch of Rathke. The descript ion also gives insights into the role of anatomic dissections in late 16th-century northern Europe.