EVALUATION OF NEW ADRENOLYTIC DRUG (REGITINE®) AS TEST FOR PHEOCHROMOCYTOMA

Abstract

The diagnosis of hypertension due to increased amounts of circulating epinephrine, arterenol, or both, released by pheochromocytoma is receiving more and more emphasis for two reasons. 1. It has only recently been recognized that many of these tumors cause sustained elevation of blood pressure, which is clinically indistinguishable from essential hypertension, and not paroxysmal attacks of hypertension. 2. Although pheochromocytomas are a comparatively uncommon cause of hypertension, if a correct diagnosis can be made and surgical removal of the tumor accomplished, the persistent elevation of the blood pressure can be decreased. The differential diagnosis, therefore, between essential hypertension, for which there is only palliative treatment, and that caused by a pheochromocytoma, for which there is surgical relief, is an important one. Although clinical experience and diagnostic acumen may suggest strongly the presence of pheochromocytomas, the introduction of various pharmacologic agents as aids in diagnosis has greatly enhanced the accuracy of