Paraganglioma-induced alveolar hemorrhage

Abstract

A 21-year-old man twice developed sudden dyspnea during running examinations for promotion. Chest computed tomography (CT) revealed lobular ground-glass opacity and centrilobular shadows bilaterally. The bronchoscopy findings were consistent with alveolar hemorrhage, and echocardiography showed severe hypokinesia a few hours later. A mass was subsequently identified along the abdominal aorta on enhanced CT and iodine-131 metaiodobenzylguanidine scintigraphy. Catecholamine oversecretion, which was later confirmed, may have increased the pulmonary vein pressure, thus resulting in the development of an alveolar hemorrhage, and damaged the cardiac muscles as manifested by hypokinesia. Since the patient had not previously developed alveolar hemorrhage during usual exercise, emotional stress superimposed on the physical activity may have triggered the paraganglioma to secrete excessive catecholamines, thus resulting in the observed symptoms.