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Abstract Disclosure: Z. Tan: None. A. Taiwo: None. Background: Sympathetic paragangliomas are rare neuroendocrine tumors (1/100,000) arising from extra-adrenal autonomic paraganglia, generally in the thorax, abdomen, and pelvis. They secrete catecholamines predominantly norepinephrine, which can cause a rare complication of catecholamine-induced cardiomyopathy. Clinical Case: A 33-year-old male, with history of obesity and borderline hypertension not on medication, presented with dyspnea on exertion, worsening paroxysmal nocturia dyspnea of 1 month duration and sudden onset of severe right flank pain. Work up for his chronic shortness of breath revealed: Troponin negative. EKG showed sinus tachycardia. Echocardiogram revealed enlarged left ventricle, severely decreased LV systolic function of 25-30%. Given the absence of angina symptoms, negative troponin, and EKG findings, his new-onset cardiomyopathy was presumed to be non-ischemic. CT chest, abdomen and pelvis was performed for the new onset right flank pain, which revealed a 4.1 cm x 4.0 cm centrally necrotic aortocaval soft tissue mass. This raise a concern about malignancy. A CT-guided Fine-Needle Aspiration of the retroperitoneal mass suggested paraganglioma. Further investigation showed plasma normetanephrine at 5.56 nmol/L (Reference range: 0-0.89 nmol/L), 24 hour urine normetanephrine at 2411 ug/d (Reference range: 114-865 ug/d), and 24 hour urine norepinephrine at 179 ug/d (Reference range: 14-20 ug/d). Plasma metanephrines and plasma dopamine were within the normal range. A gallium DOTATE PET/CT revealed a necrotic aortocaval mass with peripheral uptake, consistent with the known paraganglioma. He was diagnosed with sympathetic paraganglioma complicated with chronic catecholamine-induced cardiomyopathy and had exploratory laparotomy excision of his paraganglioma. Preoperatively, he was treated with phenoxybenzamine and carvedilol. However, his post-surgical course was complicated by acute on chronic heart failure and pneumonia, and he subsequently passed away from a pulseless electrical activity arrest. Conclusion: Although sympathetic paragangliomas rarely presents as catecholamine-induced cardiomyopathy, this case emphasizes the importance of considering hormonal abnormalities in patients who present with non-ischemic cardiomyopathy without high risk factors. Reference: 1. Alessandra Giavarini, Antoine Chedid et al. Acute catecholamine cardiomyopathy in patients with phaechromocytoma or functional paraganglioma. Heart 2013; 99: 1438-1444. Presentation: 6/2/2024
Tan et al. (Tue,) studied this question.