Paraganglioma of maxillary sinus associated with Addison’s disease mimicking a vascular tumour: A case report

Abstract

Paraganglioma of the nasal and paranasal sinuses are quite rare neuroendocrine tumours, usually hormonally inactive, presentingas nasal polyps with or without epistaxis. We present a rare case of a 23 year old male, with Addison’s disease, who was referredfrom endocrinology department with a complaint of right nasal blockage associated with recurrent epistaxis. A provisionalclinical diagnosis of vascular tumour was made, Computed tomography and MRI suggested hemangioma /inverted papilloma.However, biopsy reported a highly vascular tissue mimicking angiofibroma, further immunostaining studies with Synaptophysinand S-100 confirmed the diagnosis of Paraganglioma. This rare tumour in the paranasal sinuses may mimic vascular tumour andcan only be confirmed with histopathological immunostains studies. According to our knowledge, this is first case reported to beassociated with Addison’s disease in the English literature.