Therapy of cardiomyopathy is usually symptomatic. So, the etiology is often only superficially investigated. However, because of their curability, rare causes must be sought for. We report a case of acute cardiac failure in a young female patient with severe hypertension of recent onset. Urinary catecholamines analysis and medical imaging demonstrated a paraaortic paraganglioma. After coelioscopic resection, cardiac function recovered.