Pheochromocytoma - Signs and Symptoms

Signs and Symptoms

The signs and symptoms of a pheochromocytoma are those of sympathetic nervous system hyperactivity, including:

• Skin sensations
• Flank pain
• Elevated heart rate
• Elevated blood pressure, including paroxysmal (sporadic, episodic) high blood pressure, which sometimes can be more difficult to detect; another clue to the presence of pheochromocytoma is orthostatic hypotension (a fall in systolic blood pressure greater than 20 mmHg or a fall in diastolic blood pressure greater than 10 mmHg upon standing)
• Palpitations
• Anxiety often resembling that of a panic attack
• Diaphoresis (excessive sweating)
• Headaches - most common symptom
• Pallor

• Weight loss
• Localized amyloid deposits found microscopically
• Elevated blood glucose level (due primarily to catecholamine stimulation of lipolysis (breakdown of stored fat) leading to high levels of free fatty acids and the subsequent inhibition of glucose uptake by muscle cells. Further, stimulation of beta-adrenergic receptors leads to glycogenolysis and gluconeogenesis and thus elevation of blood glucose levels).

A pheochromocytoma can also cause resistant arterial hypertension. A pheochromocytoma can be fatal if it causes malignant hypertension, or severely high blood pressure. This hypertension is not well controlled with standard blood pressure medications.

Not all patients experience all of the signs and symptoms listed. The most common presentation is headache, excessive sweating, and increased heart rate, with the attack subsiding in less than one hour.

Tumors may grow very large, but most are smaller than 10 cm.