[Cardiac involvement in pheochromocytoma. A report of 6 cases].

Pheochromocytoma is a rare case of sustained hypertension or hypertensive crisis: sometimes it may occur with several aspecific symptoms or hypotension. The literature reports frequent myocardial involvement in patients affected by pheochromocytoma. Adrenergic hormone effects are responsible for a functional coronary insufficiency which causes myocardial damage. The cardiac involvement may appear with symptoms of different severity that sometimes represent the only symptoms of the neoplasia. Clinical and instrumental cardiac alterations observed in 6 patients suffering from pheochromocytoma are reported. Electrocardiographic abnormalities were found in 5 out of 6 patients. Inferior myocardial infarct was present in one case; in two patients electrocardiogram showed left ventricular hypertrophy and negative T wave; frequent ventricular extrasystoles in one case and complete atrio-ventricular block in another were found during the hypertensive crisis; in one patient the electrocardiogram showed STT changes and in the last one, left ventricular hypertrophy, more evident in the interventricular septum, was present at the echocardiogram. All subjects underwent surgical treatment after a period of drug therapy. To date surgery is the only possibility to eliminate myocardial malignant effects of catecholamines.