Pheochromocytoma Symptoms Diagnosis And Treatment

Pheochromocytoma is an important cause of secondary Hypertension. We have adnenal gland located at upper portion of each kidney. It is divided into adrenal cortex and adrenal medulla. Pheochromocytoma is a tumor of Adrenal Medulla. Normal function of adrenal medulla is to produce epinephrine or adrenaline. Which is responsible for controlling blood pressure and to help cope with stressful situations.
So majority of symptoms of pheochromocytoma are due to excess secretion of adrenaline from adrenal medulla. Most patients of pheochromocytoma have recurrent episodes of headache, sweating and a feeling of high anxiety. The following symptoms are listed from the most common to the least common
Headaches (severe)
sweating Episodes (generalized)
heart palpitations (tachycardia and palpitations)
Anxiety
nervousness (feelings of impending death)
tremors
Pain in the lower chest or upper abdomen
Nausea (with or without nausea)
Weight loss
Heat intolerance

These symptoms may come by situations which causes pressure over tumor like physical activity, exercise, defecation, anesthesia, or change in body position.

Who should be examined for Pheochromocytoma
Those who have uncontrolled hypertension
Those who have age between 40 and 60
Those who are already taking 4 antihypertensive drugs but blood pressure is not controllable.
Those who have episodes of above symptoms

Cause of pheochromocytoma is unknown, however some forms of this tumor runs in families like,
a-Multiple endocrine neoplasia, type II (MEN-II). In addition to a pheochromocytoma, people with MEN-II also have thyroid cancer. Other forms of MEN-II include pheochromocytoma with thyroid cancer and hyperparathyroidism (MEN-IIA), and pheochromocytoma with thyroid cancer and tumors of nerves in the eyes lips, mouth and digestive tract (MEN-IIB).
b-Neurofibromatosis 1 (NF1). Pheochromocytomas can occur in a small percentage of people with NF1, a syndrome that includes multiple tumors in the skin (neurofibromas), pigmented skin spots, tumors of the optic nerve of the eye, and bone diseases.
c-Von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) disease. People with this rare multi system disorder are at high risk of pheochromocytoma brain eye and kidney tumors.

Most pheochromocytomas are benign tumors and they don't spread to other parts of body however some forms do show metastasis (spread) to other parts of body like lungs, bones and brains. Usually only one gland is involved however this tumor can be present in both adrenal glands.

Investigations:
Blood and Urine tests: We perform blood and urine tests to diagnose pheochromocytoma. 24 hr urine collection is tested for epinephrine, norepinephrine and dopamine. This test is called VMA. Idea is just to check level of epinephrine and its metabolites in urine. If these are detected in urine in excess quantity, then tumor is diagnosed.

Abdominal scan.
Now you have diagnosed tumor by blood and urine tests, after that to find out location of tumor, do Ultrasound, CT scan of abdomen.

Complications:
If high blood pressure remained uncontrolled it may lead to complications of heart failure, infarction, cerebrovascular accident, vision damage and kidney failure.

Treatment:
First treatment is to control high blood pressure with medication like Alpha Blockers and Beta Blockers. When epinephrine is secreted by this tumor it acts on alpha and beta receptors present on heart and blood vessels, result is vasoconstriction and increase heart rate. Now if if we take drugs like alpha blocker and beta blocker, epinephrine will be blocked by these drugs to act on these receptors so result is vasodilation and slow heart rate. Common Alpha blockers are Prazosin (Minipress), Terazosin (Hytrin) Phenoxybenzamine( Dibenzaline). Common Beta Blockers are Atenolol(Tenormin), Carvedilol(Carveda), Metoprolol(Mepressor), Inderal.

Treatment of choice for this tumor is Surgery. After removal of this gland by surgery, blood pressure becomes normal with a day. There are two types of surgeries. General and Laproscopic surgery. However Surgery is not an option for those tumors which show metastasis to other parts of body. For that we use chemotherapy and radiations.

Whenever you have high blood pressure with any symptom, don't ignore it, you may be the patient of Pheochromocytoma. Always contact your Doctor.

Related Information of Interest:

Traditional Jamaican Recipes & Food
The flavors of Jamaica are the product of the island's history combined with a verdant, lush climate. The Spanish, British, African and East Indian have all had an influence over what is today a unique island cuisine made colorful by the many tropical fruits that thrive here.

The waters off Jamaica have always teemed with fish and seafood is the primary protein source for islanders. Snapper, grouper, sea bass and other reef a deep sea fish are caught daily by the many fishermen whose boats line the beaches. Spiny lobster, shrimp and freshwater crustaceans are readily available and cooked usually in a thick sauce. Chicken and goats are well suited to the small mountainous island and are kept by many families but cattle are rare and beef is not the predominant meat.

Many of Jamaica's fruits, including pineapple, mango, banana and avocado were brought to the region by slave traders and plantation owners experimenting with crops. What were once sugar cane fields are now being used to grow fruits and ackee for export and domestic use.

Few other cuisines mix such a range of spices and tastes - sweet, hot and savory - as Jamaican cooking. Jamaican food wouldn't be the same without the spices, seasonings and colors from: Allspice, the pimento berry.

Among many of the spices grown in Jamaica are nutmeg, ginger, thyme, scotch bonnet peppers, which are integral distinct flavors of Jamaican cooking. The pungent thyme grows rampantly on the island and is found in the majority of Jamaican foods.

Favourite Jamaican foods are those for coconut cake, rum punch & beef jerky recipies.

Real Jamaican food, when cooked with feeling, is a soul-satisfying experience.

For further tips and ideas for cooking great and traditional food from around the world, visit rel="nofollow">a href="http://www.worldwide-recipes.com/jamaican-recipes.html" target="_blank">Jamaican Recipes

This article was submitted by Jen Carter, owner of the World Recipes website. Jen has travelled around the world and enjoys collecting and sharing recipes from other countries.

Profiting With Affiliate Programs
One of the main reasons more people are not making money on the Internet is that they don't have a product or service they can market. Most people find it too difficult to develop a product, promote it with a website, and create a marketing plan to get it front of the right people. Most do not have the knowledge or expertise to even get started and are frustrated before they even begin. Does this sound like you? It was for me until I discovered affiliate programs.

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Where can you find a good affiliate program? You will find thousands of opportunities using an internet search under "affiliate programs". Many of the websites you are visiting now may already have an excellent affiliate program established. You can join it and make money in an area that you enjoy or already have expertise in. The best site I have found for affiliate programs is clickbank.com. This site lists hundreds of successful affiliate programs people are using to make money with today.

Now I am going to let you in on a secret that can explode your affiliate marketing profits. Capture the email addresses of those interested in the affiliate program you are trying to promote. Why? You will develop your own opt in mailing list that you can send repeated emails to capture additional sales. You can also market other products and services to this list once it is developed. You will create an asset that can be used over and over again, multiplying your online income!

Promoting affiliate programs is an excellent way to start earning money on-line right away. It is also a great way to break into new markets. If you already have a large email list to market to, you can send out an endorsement email and generate sales within minutes. The possibilities are endless. Check out affiliate programs today!

To your success!
Steve Scoresby

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My Rented Vacation - The RV Saga
My wife and I have a tradition of vacationing the month of January at a quaint little area in Florida. It is not on the beach where the high priced restaurants are located and where the crowds gather. We enjoy this quiet little RV park that is on the banks of a fishing lake located in central Florida. Several couples caravan south in our RVs to escape the harsh winter weather which seams to get worse the older we get. It is a time that we can relax after the busy holiday season and we can renew our close relationships with our friends.

This year we ran into some bad luck just before we were to depart for our relaxing getaway. The RV would not start and it needed engine repairs that would not be finished in time for our vacation. We did not want to cancel our plans, as this time is something that we look forward to each year. So we decided to rent an RV for our trip.

There are a couple of dealers close that have RV motorhome rentals available, so we decided to check them out. The first question that we were asked was if this was a one way RV rental. I answered no, and that we would be returning in it. They mentioned that they were a pet friendly RV rental agency and did we have pets. My answer again was no, and we would rather not rent a motorhome that pets have inhabited. My wife is allergic to pets. They were very friendly and helpful and seemed to the RV motor home rental business very well.

I was very much impressed when they suggested that we drive to Florida in our automobile and rent an RV unit when we get there. This would save us several dollars in fuel expenses, enough to where we could afford a motel if need be. My one concern was if there would be a unit available to rent when we got there. And being the professionals that they are, they went ahead and made all of the necessary arraignments for us. They secured a vehicle for us that would be waiting, ready to go, when we arrived in Florida, and helped us make the deposit online.

So we didn’t miss our January outing after all, and it ended up being a very memorable occasion. I will not forget our rented vacation. When we returned from our trip, I purchased a new vehicle from the dealer with the friendly and very helpful rental staff.

For more information, try Better RV Rentals

Backup Schedule: Learn How Often To Backup
If you backup, you are one step away from a disaster. If you backup often, make it several steps. Learn how often to backup and how to make your own backup schedule.

Surely, one can backup to whatever backup medium he wants, but if one does not stick to a backup schedule, most of the efforts, aimed at storing or securing the important information will be spent in vain.

First, we need to figure out what we are backing up, as the backup schedule largely depends on the size of the backup data:

- small amounts of data (important work documents) can be backed up often, hourly, daily and at least weekly

- medium amounts of files (e-mail messages, project documents and work documents) can be backed up daily, weekly or monthly (at least)

- large amounts of data (e-mail messages, project documents, data files, settings files, etc) can be backed up weekly or monthly

- huge amounts of data (all of the above plus images, audios - mp3s and videos - mpegs) can be backed up monthly or yearly

- total backup (a backup of all the data on the computer) can be backed up weekly, monthly or yearly.

Which backup schedule to choose is up to you, but you will also need to choose a backup software to do that and set up the time when to perform a scheduled backup.

First of all, the backup software needs to support the backup medium you want to backup (CD, DVD, FTP, LAN, external USB or flash drive, etc). Next, you select the files you want to backup, choose the time you want to backup and leave it there. Some programs can run as a service and don't need to be launched, but some need to be running when you want the backup to be run. At any case, the computer has to be on at the time of your backup schedule.

Think the time of a backup schedule doesn't matter? What if it runs during your work day and slows down your work computer for an hour or two? To keep working _and_ to stick to the backup schedule, simply set the backup to run a couple of hours before or after your working time. This way you won't be interrupted with a scheduled backup.

Read more backup articles and guidelines about backup (how to choose a backup medium or about different media - CD, DVD, external or flash USB drives, for instance).