Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Pheochromocytoma is an endocrine tumor developed in the chromaffin cells of the adrenal medulla and excessively secreting catecholamines in varying amounts and types. It represents a rare tumor, often benign, but serious considering its mainly cardiovascular complications. The purpose of our study is to specify the revelation methods of pheochromocytomas in our population.

Patients and methods: Our study has included 23 cases of pheochromocytomas followed in the endocrinology department of the Mohammed VI University Hospital of Marrakech between 2012 and 2017.

Results: The mean age of patients was 42.4 years, the sex ratio was 1.8 with female predominance. The circumstances of discovery were a triad of Menard in 69% of cases, an HTA in 43% including 2 cases of pre-eclampsia, an adrenal incidentaloma in 26%, an acute coronary syndrome in 2 cases, a transient ischemic attack in one case, a subocclusive syndrome in 1 case and during a histological examination of an operative specimen in 1 case. The most frequent location was on the right (50% of cases) with 4 cases of bilateral incidentaloma, the average size was 67 mm.

Discussion: Pheochromocytoma is a rare tumor whose variable clinical expression is dominated by the Menard triad and hypertension but which can be revealed by an acute array, surgical treatment is the only curative treatment but remains limited for malignant forms.