| Symptoms | Percent paroxysmal (37 patients) |
Percent persistent (39 patients) |
| Symptoms Presumably Due to Excessive Catecholamines or Hypertension | ||
Headache (severe) |
92 | 72 |
Excessive sweating (generalized) |
65 | 69 |
Palpitations + tachycardia |
73 | 51 |
Anxiety or nervousness (+ fear of impending death, panic) |
60 | 28 |
Tremulousness |
51 | 26 |
Pain in chest, abdomen (usually epigastric), lumbar regions, lower abdomen, or groin |
48 | 28 |
Nausea + vomiting |
43 | 26 |
Weakness, fatigue, prostration |
38 | 15 |
Weight loss (severe) |
14 | 15 |
Dyspnea |
11 | 18 |
Warmth + heat intolerance |
13 | 15 |
Visual disturbances |
3 | 21 |
Dizziness or faintness |
11 | 3 |
Constipation |
0 | 13 |
Paresthesia or pain in arms |
11 | 0 |
Bradycardia (noted by patient) |
8 | 3 |
Grand mal |
5 | 3 |
| Manifestations Due to Complications | ||
Congestive heart failure + cardiomyopathy |
||
Myocardial infarction |
||
Cerebrovascular accident |
||
Ischemic enterocolitis + megacolon |
||
Azotemia |
||
Dissecting aneurysm |
||
Encephalopathy |
||
Shock |
||
Hemorrhagic necrosis in a pheochromocytoma |
||
| Manifestations Due to Coexisting Diseases or Syndromes | ||
Cholelithiasis |
||
Medullary thyroid carcinoma + effects of secretions of serotonin, calcitonin, prostaglandin, or ACTH-like substance |
||
Hyperparathyroidism |
||
Mucocutaneous neuromas with characteristic facies |
||
Thickened corneal nerves (seen only with slit lamp) |
||
Marfanoid habitus |
||
Alimentary tract ganglioneuromatosis |
||
Neurofibromatosis and its complications |
||
Cushing's syndrome (rare) |
||
Von Hippel-Lindau disease (rare) |
||
Virilism, Addison's disease, acromegaly (extremely rare) |
||
| Symptoms Caused by Endroachment on Adjacent Structures or by Invasion and Pressure Effects of Metastases |
(From: Manger WM and Gifford RW Jr. Pheochromocytoma, Chapter 102, in: Hypertension Pathophysiology Diagnosis and Management, JH Laragh, BM Brenner (eds). Raven Press: New York, 1990.)