This is the case of a 49-year-old female presenting in sustained cardiogenic shock due to an adrenal pheochromocytoma. She was rescued by venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. The presence of a catecholamine-secreting tumor was confirmed by highly elevated plasma metanephrines and catecholamines. Successful open adrenalectomy was performed under protective extracorporeal life suppor...

A sensitive and specific double-isotope dilution method for assaying norepinephrine and epinephrine separately is described. The method is based on enzymatic conversion of these two catecholamines to their respective metanephrines and was applied successfully to measurement of resting plasma concentrations of norepinephrine and epinephrine in normal subjects with the finding that norepinephrine...

A 76-year-old woman was admitted for cardiac decompensation, hypertension, and renal failure. To explore her chronic hypertension, urinary fractionated metanephrines were quantified. Fig. 1A shows the chromatogram of the patient’s urine, and Fig. 1B shows the chromatogram of a calibration standard. A very large methoxytyramine peak was observed (Fig. 1A, black arrow). The peak signal was satura...

A sensitive and specific double-isotope dilution method for assaying norepinephrine and epinephrine separately is described. The method is based on enzymatic conversion of these two catecholamines to their respective metanephrines and was applied successfully to measurement of resting plasma concentrations of norepinephrine and epinephrine in normal subjects with the finding that norepinephrine...

1. Erythrocyte catechol-O-methyltransferase was studied in a population sample of 147 subjects. 2. There was a wide interindividual variability of catechol-O-methyltransferase activity, which was not unimodally distributed. Catechol-O-methyltransferase activity was not influenced by blood pressure, age or sex, nor was it related to plasma noradrenaline or urinary catecholamines or metanephrines...

TOPIC: Cardiovascular Disease TYPE: Medical Student/Resident Case Reports INTRODUCTION: Takotsubo cardiomyopathy (TCM) is characterized by transient systolic dysfunction resulting in hallmark apical ballooning/hypokinesis without the presence of coronary artery disease.1 The pathophysiology entails extreme stress, which generates a sudden and massive surge catecholamines then markedly deranges ...

CLINICAL CHEMISTRY, Vol. 28, No. 5, 1982 1243 to have concentrations for all the above that were within the normal range. FPG, TG, TC, and UA were measured with the SMA-12 Technicon multi-channel analyzer; HDL-C was measured by the method outlined in the Lipid Research Clinics Manual of Laboratory Operations (6). The intercorrelations are shown in Table 1. The fact that significant correlation ...