Pheochromocytoma - Symptoms and Signs

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Signs of pheochromocytoma largely depend on which hormone will release the tumor. If pheochromocytoma develops on the cortical substance of the gland, then this can lead to the appearance of Cushing's syndrome. Symptoms of this condition will be fat deposits on the hips, the back of the neck, thinned skin, muscle weakness, striae on the hips and in the lower abdomen. If the neoplasm produces male sex hormones, and the patient is a woman, then it can have hair growth on the body and on the face, which will clearly indicate problems with the glands.

In some cases, on the background of a tumor, diabetes can develop. Often the symptom of the disease is hypertensive crises, sharply arising and also rapidly disappearing. However, it is easiest to determine pheochromocytoma, the symptoms of which are of a permanent nature, such as persistent arterial hypertension and obvious violations of kidney function. It is hypertension and frequent hypertensive crises that are considered the main symptoms of this disease, since the majority of hormones produced by the tumor affect the blood pressure, increasing it in some cases up to 300/150.Then the pressure normalizes, during the normalization there is involuntary urination, loss of consciousness and increased sweating. Both hypertension and crises are very dangerous symptoms of the tumor, as they can cause many serious complications, the most dangerous of which are considered to be strokes.

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The main signs of pheochromocytoma are:

  • Vomiting;
  • Pulsating headaches;
  • Nausea;
  • Pale coverage;
  • Convulsions of the lower limbs;
  • Sweating;
  • Discomfort in the abdomen.

Usually, the symptoms of pheochromocytoma are episodic, which greatly complicates the diagnosis of the disease, since after the crisis all signs disappear and the pressure drops to normal or hypotonic.

In addition to the main symptoms of an adrenal tumor, there are also indirect symptoms that may indicate the presence of the disease in the patient, which includes unreasonable and often repeated attacks of anxiety, seizures, loss of consciousness, a constant need for caffeine, hot flashes in menopause, and hyperventilation of the lungs.

Symptoms of pheochromocytoma in severe form may be the presence of a patient:

  • Neurasthenia;
  • Salivation;
  • Hyperglycemia;
  • Psychoses;
  • Heart failure;
  • High ESR and red blood cells;
  • Hypogonadism;
  • Disorders of the vessels of the fundus and kidneys.

All these signs are equally common in people with malignant neoplasms and benign adrenal pheochromocytomas.

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