PHEOCHROMOCYTOMA MASQUERADING AS PREECLAMPSIA

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Abstract
This report is of interest because it is the 13th instance of a pheochromocytoma associated with pregnancy that we have found in American and British literature. Although rare, this condition is of great importance because it is potentially curable and has been frequently incorrectly diagnosed. Pheochromocytomas are tumors of the adrenal medulla that may give rise to a clinical picture presenting several or all of the following symptoms: hypertension, headache, sweating, nausea and vomiting, palpitation, cardiac arrhythmias, epigastric pain, dyspnea and tachypnea, glycosuria, pulmonary edema, or shock. The hypertension may be constant or paroxysmal. Because of this picture, pheochromocytomas have masqueraded under the diagnoses of malignant hypertension, neurosis, brain tumor, and, as in our case, preeclampsia. REPORT OF A CASE This patient, a retired, white, army nurse, was in excellent health until the latter part of her first pregnancy in March, 1947, at which time she was 27 years old.

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