Twenty-four hour ambulatory blood pressure and heart rate in a patient with a predominantly adrenaline secreting phaeochromocytoma.

Abstract

In this report, we present the symptoms, biochemical investigations, 24 hour ambulatory blood pressure and heart rate recordings in a patient before and following removal of a predominantly adrenaline-secreting phaeochromocytoma. The symptoms were of episodic shaking, faintness, nausea, palpitations, sweating and panic, chest and neck pain with headache, and are consistent with previous reports. Ambulatory blood pressure recording demonstrated that mean daily blood pressure was normal, with normal diurnal variation, and two episodes of severe hypertension and bradycardia coincident with symptoms (MAP 150 mmHg and HR 49 beats/minute, MAP 178 mmHg and HR 29 beats/minute, respectively), not reported in predominantly adrenaline-secreting phaeochromocytoma.