[Pathomorphological changes in the heart and its vessels in adrenal pheochromocytoma]

The heart and its vessels were studied in 7 patients with clinically unrecognized adrenal pheochromocytoma dying suddenly at the age of 37--56 years under stress situations with acute cardiovascular insufficiency the morphological manifestations of which in 4 cases (with coronary atherosclerosis) consisted in a fresh coronarogenic myocardial infarction and beyond its zone "myocardial lesions", and in 3 numerous "myocardial lesions" localized in the area of the microcirculatory channel with marked pathological changes of the vessels in the latter. Lesions of the microcirculatory channel are systemic, partially irreversible, prevalent in arterioles and capillaries, and play the leading role in "myocardial lesions". Fresh cardio-vascular complications developed due to pheochromocytogenic hypertension crisis and extreme hypercatecholaminemia in the end of the disease because of the stress reaction.