Excretion of catecholamines in relatives of patients with familial neuroblastoma.

The urinary excretion of catecholamines in 13 close relatives of two distantly related patients with congenital neuroblastoma was investigated. One of these relatives was a child with already known ganglioneuroblastoma. The catecholamines noradrenaline and dopamine were determined. Vanilmandelic acid and homovanillic acid also were determined and numerous other catecholamine metabolites were measured. In contrast to some previous reports in the literature, no pathological excretion patterns were found in the healthy family members.