Endocrine Abstracts

This multi centre observational cohort study gives a view about the occurrence, clinical and laboratory presentation, localization, histological type and genetic background of pheochromocytoma (PHEO) and paraganglioma (PGL) in Eastern Slovakia. It included 28 patients (18 women +10 men), of which 23 were diagnosed to have PHEO (82.1%) and seven patients (25%) suffered from PGL with retroperitoneal, inguinal/pelvic and mediastinal distribution. Arterial hypertension was the major symptom present in 86% with slight dominance of paroxysmal form (58%). In three cases (10.7%), the diagnosis was gained after differentiation of adrenal incidentaloma in asymptomatic patients. five patients (17.8%) were classified to have malignant form of the disease. nine patients (32.1%) were confirmed to have hereditary form – of which five patients (17.8%) with familiar medullar thyroid cancer (FMTC) and mutations in RET gene classified as multiple endocrine neoplasia 2A and four patients (14.3%) with germline mutations of SDHB gene. We found relatively high occurrence of other co-morbidities: thyroid disease in 20 patients (71.4%), impairment of glucose metabolism in 11 patients (39.3%) and apart from FMTC, four patients (14.3%) suffered also from other malignancy. Together with a bigger size of the primary tumor (6.6 cm), higher concentrations of metanephrines and prevalence of extra-adrenal tumors, malignant and hereditary forms, we suppose genetic and environmental factors of Eastern Slovakia may play a role in the etiopathogenesis. However this requires a further evaluation.