Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction and Objectives: Pheochromocytomas and paragangliomas are rare neuroendocrine tumors derived from enterochromaffin tissue, mostly catecholamine-producing, adrenal gland (PCC) or extra-adrenal paraganglia (PGL). We were struck by the high incidence of these in our health care area, so we decided to study them. The aim of this work is to evaluate the clinical characteristics and epidemiological factors of patients diagnosed with PCC or PGL.

Material and Methods: Retrospective descriptive observational study analyzing patients diagnosed with PCC or PGL at the Hospital Universitario Clínico San Cecilio of Granada from 01/01/2018 to 31/122021. Clinical, radiological and pathological variables are measured. The analysis was performed with SPSS 15.0.

Results: 18 cases were diagnosed in 4 years, which is equivalent to a mean incidence of 10.27 cases/1000000 people/year, which is higher than the figure described in the literature (2-8 cases/1000000 people/year). 15 were PCC and 3, PGL, 72.2% were women, with a mean age of 49.17±15.59 years. The 61.2% were diagnosed by compatible symptoms, 27.8% were incidentalomas and 11.1% by screening in mutation carriers. The mean size measured by CT was 45.22±23.02 mm. Tc-99m MIBI scintigraphy was also performed in 72.2% of cases, with positive uptake in 76.9%. Chromogranin A was elevated in 80%. Genetic test was performed in 76.5%, 5 of them had mutations. Sixteen of the 18 were operated by laparoscopy and alpha and beta blockade was performed in all of them and previous embolization in 2 of them.

Conclusions: Our suspicion about the high incidence of these tumors in our area is confirmed. We see that the diagnostic form is very varied. We found 38.46% of hereditary forms, in agreement with what has been described in the literature, 83.3% presenting some predictive factor of greater aggressiveness. We did not find any case with metastasis.