Angiography in Pheochromocytoma of the Urinary Bladder

Abstract

A case of pheochromocytoma of the urinary bladder in a 20-year-old female is reported. This is the 36th reported case in the English language literature. The patient had classical symptoms of vesical pheochromocytoma with sudden onset of headache, palpitations, and blood pressure elevation during voiding. The provisional diagnosis was arrived at on clinical history, laboratory investigations, including the estimation of catecholamines and vanil mandelic acid (VMA). The diagnosis was confirmed and the tumor was exactly localized by means of angiography. The angiographic appearance of pheochromocytoma of the urinary bladder is not pathognomonic and is similar to that previously described for adrenal pheochromocytoma. Angiography is, with adequate precautions, a safe and useful procedure for ruling out synchronous adrenal or extra-adrenal tumors and for exact localization of the bladder tumor.