Catecholamine heart muscle disease in pheochromocytoma.

Many clinical symptoms and signs in patients with pheochromocytoma are evoked by the influence of catecholamines on the heart muscle and on the coronary circulation. In our work besides clinical features the ECG pictures of the patients were studied where the elevation of the ST segment with a negative coronary T wave but without a Q wave were observed. In the echocardiographic picture our patients showed a rather hyperkinetic heart action in the florid phase of the illness. For several years after surgery a nonhomogenous structure of the interventricular septum persisted. Hypertrophy of the septum was a less frequent finding. In patients with pheochromocytoma we suppose the signs mentioned above to be the manifestation of the catecholamine heart muscle disease (CHMD).