nbme20/Block 2/Question#50
A 27-year-old woman comes to the physician because ...
Pheochromocytoma
medschul
Would pheo have a normal resting BP though?
+ 2019-06-04T21:07:25Z
meningitis
I was trying to justify these tricky questions but very true medschul.. It shouldn't have normal resting BP. Sometimes it seems these NBME always have a trick up their sleeve. Im getting paranoid lol
+ 2019-06-11T06:10:12Z
nala_ula
The reason why the patient probably has normal HTN is because Pheochromocytoma has symptoms that occurs in "spells" - they come and go. Apparently in that moment, when the physician is examining her, she doesn't have the HTN, but like @meningitis explained, so many adrenergic hormones around leads to double the vasoconstriction when the patient stands up.
+1 2019-06-13T23:46:31Z
meningitis
Thank you @nala_ula for your contribution! Really filled in the gap Iwas missing.
+1 2019-06-15T02:30:14Z
nala_ula
No problem! Thank you for all your contributions throughout this page!
+ 2019-06-16T19:11:02Z
to snoo-finity ... and beyond!
submitted by meningitis(54), 2019-05-28T02:27:18Z
When standing up, the body normally activates sympathetic system to avoid orthostatic hypotension.
But since there is now an additive effect of the pheochromocytoma adrenergics, it will lead to a hypertension
(i.e: Double vasoconstriction = Pheo adrenergics + Sympathetic system)