Diagnosis of functional paraganglioma by ultrasonographer squeezing the retroperitoneal tumor and measuring the change of blood pressure: A case presentation

Paraganglioma (PGL), also known as chemoreceptor tumor, can occur in various parts of the body, with the most common one in the adrenal gland called pheochromocytoma (PHEO). As PGL arise within the sympathetic nervous system which originates from the neural crest (1), some PGLs have the ability to secrete catecholamine and are characterized by symptomatic hypertension (2,3). Inspired by the fact that PGL patients’ blood pressure rises when the surgeons touch the tumor during operation, a chance idea occurred to us to squeeze the tumor during ultrasound examination to see if there is a significant fluctuation in blood pressure, and to determine whether the tumor has endocrine function. Our experience in one case is described below.