[Secondary hypertension during a course of phaeochromocytoma in a 71-year old woman].

The case of secondary hypertension to pheochromocytoma in 71 year old woman is described. This woman has been made a false diagnosis of primary hypertension 10 years earlier. The primary objective of this paper was to call practitioners' attention to the necessity of penetrating diagnosis of arterial hypertension, also in elderly patients. Over-hasty diagnosis of primary arterial hypertension hampers the possibility of proper and causal treatment. Labile and paroxysmal hypertension with headache, tachycardia and sweating should alert the clinician to tumor of the adrenal medulla as well as the extra-adrenal paraganglion system (pheochromocytoma is the cause of arterial hypertension in 0.1-1.0% of all cases). Twenty four hours excretion level of vanillylmandelic acid in urine is of diagnostic relevance for patients with pheochromocytoma. The measurement which is done after elevation of blood pressure is more sensitive.