Catecholamine-Secreting Paraganglioma

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Abstract
Catecholamine-producing tumors may arise within the adrenal medulla or in any location where chromaffin or paraganlionic tissue may exist. This report describes the case of a patient with a known mediastinal mass, whose course was complicated by a sudden release of catecholamine, causing a myocarditis simulating a myocardial infarction. The problems of locating and classifying the tumors are discussed. PATIENT SUMMARY In October 1971, a 57-year-old man came to a local hospital with a nodule in the left supraclavicular fossa. A biopsy specimen of the nodule was taken without complication and was reported as an undifferentiated sarcoma. The patient had had a 7-kg (15-lb) weight loss during the previous year but denied any history of hypertension, headache, flushing palpitations, excessive sweating, dyspnea, chest pain, or edema. As a child, he had had pneumonia that "left scars." A lumbar laminectomy was performed in 1962 because of a herniated disk. There was