This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

The First Symptom of Hyponatremia in Small Cell Carcinoma of the Lung

Hercules Panayiotou, MBBCh; Suzanne C. Small, MD; James H. Hunter, MD; R. Michael Culpepper, MD

Arch Intern Med. 1995;155(12):1325-1328.

Abstract
Three patients with small cell carcinoma of the lung presented with a persistent unpleasant sweet taste as their initial and only symptom. On further evaluation, they were found to have hyponatremia secondary to the syndrome of inappropriate secretion of antidiuretic hormone. In each case, resolution of the sweet taste paralled an increase in serum sodium concentration after water restriction alone. Linkage of the sweet taste with a low serum sodium concentration strongly implicates hyponatremia—rather than tumor, antidiuretic factor, medications, or chemotherapy—as the central mechanism responsible for this previously unreported (to our knowledge) sentinel symptom of small cell carcinoma of the lung.

(Arch Intern Med. 1995;155:1325-1328)

Author Affiliations
From the Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, University of South Alabama, Mobile.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Dysgeusia in symptomatic syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone secretion: think of lung cancer
Singh et al.
BMJ Case Reports 2009;2008:bcr0220091567-bcr0220091567.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Unpleasant sweet taste: a symptom of SIADH caused by lung cancer.
Nakazato et al.
J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatry 2006;77:405-406.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT