The combination of coarctation of the aorta and aortic valvular stenosis is not well known, although the association of coarctation with aortic incompetence is generally recognized and usually attributed to an incompetent bicuspid aortic valve. Abbot (1928), in her review of coarctation, did not discuss its association with aortic valvular stenosis. However, she reported four cases of sub-aorti...

Methods Consecutive patients referred for cardiac MRI for repaired aortic coarctation, bicuspid aortic valve, or both were retrospectively reviewed. Patients with prior aortic valve or ascending aortic surgery were excluded, though prior coarctation intervention was not excluded. Maximum ascending aortic dimension was obtained, and averaged for patients with BAV alone, BAV and coarctation, or c...

BACKGROUND Coarctation of the aorta is a discrete stenosis of the proximal thoracic aorta. The common clinical pattern is congestive heart failure in infancy. Treatment methods include balloon angioplasty and surgical repair in this age group. Percutaneous balloon angioplasty is a less invasive method for the repair of discrete coarctation but remains controversial as a primary treatment strate...

Background: Aortic coarctation is a congenital narrowing of the aorta. Computed tomography angiography is used to detect aortic coarctation and determine its extent and severity. Objective: To assess pediatric aortic coarctation by computed tomography (CT) angiography. Material and Methods: This study included eighteen patients (10 males and 8 females) who were clinically diagnosed to have coar...

Various surgical approaches have been proposed for complex (re-) coarctation and aortic arch hypoplasia (AAH). We report seven patients (mean age 19.6+/-9.5 years) with complex coarctation or re-coarctation and AAH successfully treated by extra-anatomic ascending-to-descending aortic bypass (ADB) via sternotomy between 1995 and 2002 without mortality and no relevant complication early postopera...

Sixteen cine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies were performed in 14 patients aged 1 week to 17 years (mean age, 46 months), who had coarctation of the aorta confirmed at angiography or surgery. Conventional echocardiographic-gated MRI was first performed in axial and rotated sagittal views and was used to identify the slice locations for cine MRI. Cine MRI was performed by gradient-recal...

Although uncomplicated type B dissection is well established to be treated conservatively, adult aortic coarctation is still considered a surgical candidate in the presence of peak-to-peak coarctation gradient >20 mmHg. The treatment for aortic coarctation included surgical repair, balloon angioplasty, and stenting [17]. While balloon angioplasty is the preferred treatment for discrete coarctat...

In patients with unexplained hypertension, especially in combination with a cardiac murmur, the presence of an aortic coarctation should always be ruled out given the high morbidity and mortality. However, particularly patients with an isolated coarctation often remain asymptomatic for years and the defect may be unnoticed even until the fifth or sixth decade of life. In the present article, we...

The role of angiotensin II via the angiotensin type 1 or type 2 receptor in the development of cardiac hypertrophy was determined in adult male Sprague-Dawley rats subjected to coarctation of the abdominal aorta. Five groups of animals were studied: coarctation, coarctation plus DuP 753, coarctation plus PD 123319, sham plus DuP 753, or sham operation. Type 1 receptor blockade was accomplished ...

We report the unusual presentation of coarctation of the aorta with facial nerve palsy in an infant and a child. The facial nerve palsy and hypertension resolved spontaneously after relief of the aortic coarctation. Our two cases are the first reports of unidentified coarctation of the aorta presenting as facial nerve palsy, with the infant being the youngest to be reported.