Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Archives of Disease in Childhood logoLink to Archives of Disease in Childhood
. 1990 Mar;65(3):269–274. doi: 10.1136/adc.65.3.269

Phaeochromocytoma--investigation and management of 10 cases.

J E Deal 1, P S Sever 1, T M Barratt 1, M J Dillon 1
PMCID: PMC1792259  PMID: 2334202

Abstract

Since 1960 we have diagnosed phaeochromocytoma (paraganglioma) in 10 children. The cases include a 15 year old girl who over a three year period presented with multiple paragangliomata and an associated malignant carotid body tumour. All children were hypertensive, eight of 10 presenting with severe headaches. Diagnosis was based on finding a raised urinary vanillylmandelic acid excretion and plasma noradrenaline concentration. In addition six of eight children were hypercalcaemic with raised plasma calcitonin concentrations; plasma parathyroid hormone concentrations were high in two of seven and four out of eight children had raised plasma renin activities on presentation. No child, however, was found to have a multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome. Despite the introduction of newer techniques for the detection of catecholamine producing tumours we found that selective arteriography and venous catecholamine sampling were superior for tumour localisation compared with ultrasound scanning, computed tomography, and metaiodo-benzyl-guanidine (MIBG) scanning.

Full text

PDF
269

Images in this article

272Figure 1
on p.272

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Allison D. J., Brown M. J., Jones D. H., Timmis J. B. Role of venous sampling in locating a phaeochromocytoma. Br Med J (Clin Res Ed) 1983 Apr 2;286(6371):1122–1124. doi: 10.1136/bmj.286.6371.1122. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Bailey R. R. Labetalol in the treatment of a patient with phaechromocytoma: a case report. Br J Clin Pharmacol. 1979;8(Suppl 2):141S–142S. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Bravo E. L., Gifford R. W., Jr Current concepts. Pheochromocytoma: diagnosis, localization and management. N Engl J Med. 1984 Nov 15;311(20):1298–1303. doi: 10.1056/NEJM198411153112007. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Dickinson P. H., Griffin S. M., Guy A. J., McNeill I. F. Carotid body tumour: 30 years experience. Br J Surg. 1986 Jan;73(1):14–16. doi: 10.1002/bjs.1800730107. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Dunn G. D., Brown M. J., Sapsford R. N., Mansfield A. O., Hemingway A. P., Sever P. S., Allison D. J. Functioning middle mediastinal paraganglioma (phaeochromocytoma) associated with intercarotid paragangliomas. Lancet. 1986 May 10;1(8489):1061–1064. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(86)91331-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Ellis D., Gartner J. C. The intraoperative medical management of childhood pheochromocytoma. J Pediatr Surg. 1980 Oct;15(5):655–659. doi: 10.1016/s0022-3468(80)80519-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Grimley P. M., Glenner G. G. Histology and ultrastructure of carotid body paragangliomas. Comparison with the normal gland. Cancer. 1967 Sep;20(9):1473–1488. doi: 10.1002/1097-0142(196709)20:9<1473::aid-cncr2820200914>3.0.co;2-i. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. HUME D. M. Pheochromocytoma in the adult and in the child. Am J Surg. 1960 Apr;99:458–496. doi: 10.1016/0002-9610(60)90141-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Jarrott B., Louis W. J. Abnormalities in enzymes involved in catecholamine synthesis and catabolism in phaeochromocytoma. Clin Sci Mol Med. 1977 Dec;53(6):529–535. doi: 10.1042/cs0530529. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Kaufman B. H., Telander R. L., van Heerden J. A., Zimmerman D., Sheps S. G., Dawson B. Pheochromocytoma in the pediatric age group: current status. J Pediatr Surg. 1983 Dec;18(6):879–884. doi: 10.1016/s0022-3468(83)80040-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Knudson A. G., Jr, Strong L. C. Mutation and cancer: neuroblastoma and pheochromocytoma. Am J Hum Genet. 1972 Sep;24(5):514–532. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Lenders J. W., Sluiter H. E., Thien T., Willemsen J. Treatment of a phaeochromocytoma of the urinary bladder with nifedipine. Br Med J (Clin Res Ed) 1985 Jun 1;290(6482):1624–1625. doi: 10.1136/bmj.290.6482.1624-a. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Lewis D., Dalton N., Rigden S. Phaeochromocytoma: report of three cases. Pediatr Nephrol. 1987 Jan;1(1):46–49. doi: 10.1007/BF00866884. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Melicow M. M. One hundred cases of pheochromocytoma (107 tumors) at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, 1926-1976: a clinicopathological analysis. Cancer. 1977 Nov;40(5):1987–2004. doi: 10.1002/1097-0142(197711)40:5<1987::aid-cncr2820400502>3.0.co;2-r. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Revak C. S., Morris S. E., Alexander G. H. Pheochromocytoma and recurrent chemodectomas over a twenty-five-year period. Radiology. 1971 Jul;100(1):53–54. doi: 10.1148/100.1.53. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Robinson M. J., Kent M., Stocks J. Phaeochromocytoma in childhood: report of 3 cases. Arch Dis Child. 1973 Feb;48(2):137–142. doi: 10.1136/adc.48.2.137. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Sato T., Saito H., Yoshinaga K., Shibota Y., Sasano N. Concurrence of carotid body tumor and pheochromocytoma. Cancer. 1974 Nov;34(5):1787–1795. doi: 10.1002/1097-0142(197411)34:5<1787::aid-cncr2820340529>3.0.co;2-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Serfas D., Shoback D. M., Lorell B. H. Phaeochromocytoma and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy: apparent suppression of symptoms and noradrenaline secretion by calcium-channel blockade. Lancet. 1983 Sep 24;2(8352):711–713. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(83)92250-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Shapiro B., Copp J. E., Sisson J. C., Eyre P. L., Wallis J., Beierwaltes W. H. Iodine-131 metaiodobenzylguanidine for the locating of suspected pheochromocytoma: experience in 400 cases. J Nucl Med. 1985 Jun;26(6):576–585. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Stewart B. H., Straffon R. A., Bravo E. L., Meaney T. F. A simplified, cost-effective approach to the diagnosis of pheochromocytoma. Trans Am Assoc Genitourin Surg. 1979;71:101–7. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Wilson R. A., Ibanez M. L. A comparative study of 14 cases of familial and nonfamilial pheochromocytomas. Hum Pathol. 1978 Mar;9(2):181–188. doi: 10.1016/s0046-8177(78)80109-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Archives of Disease in Childhood are provided here courtesy of BMJ Publishing Group

RESOURCES