Urinary Excretion of Methoxycatecholamines in Neuroblastoma

Abstract

The urinary excretion of the methoxycatecholamines has been studied in 19 patients with neuroblastoma. Usually patients with relatively high excretion of methoxytyramine did not show any excretion of metadrenaline and vice versa. No correlation between the excretion of normetadrenaline and methoxytyramine or metadrenaline was found. The background for this finding—an inhibition of methoxytyramine on the enzymatic formation of metadrenaline—is discussed.

Key Words:

• Catecholamines
• dopamine
• neuroblastoma
• transferase