Phaeochromocytoma and cardiomyopathy

Abstract

This case report describes a patient who presented with severe biventricular cardiac failure and shock, whose cardiac function returned to normal after the removal of a noradrenaline-secreting benign phaeochromocytoma. A catecholamine-induced cardiomyopathy with cardiogenic shock, rather than catecholamine-mediated peripheral vasoconstriction alone, is postulated as a mechanism to account for the marked hypoperfusion.