Coarctation of the aorta is a congenital heart defect that affects numerous babies born each year. Your aorta is the largest artery in your body and provides oxygen rich blood from your heart to the rest of your body. Coarctation of the aorta is a heart condition in which the aorta has an area of narrowing along its pathway. This can lead to blood backing up into the heart, which leads to the heart working harder to pump blood through your body.
Your heart is made up of 4 different chambers. Two chambers pump oxygen rich blood to your body via your aorta and two of the chambers pump oxygen depleted blood to your lungs to pick up oxygen. The heart works as a large pump, so if any portion of the pump malfunctions, then blood will back up and lead to issues. Coarctation of the aorta leads to narrowing of the portion of the heart that pumps oxygen rich blood throughout the body. This can lead to the heart trying to compensate and pumping harder and raising blood pressure to pump blood through the narrowed portion of the aorta. Over time, this can lead to large differences in blood pressure in different parts of the body.
Symptoms of coarctation of the aorta truly depend on how narrowed the section of aorta is. With mild narrowing, you may not be diagnosed until adulthood, while severe narrowing can lead to heart failure in infancy. Babies with severe coarctation may develop the following symptoms:
Moderate and severe coarctation of the aorta is most often diagnosed in the hospital after the baby has been born due to how quickly symptoms appear.
The cause of many congenital heart defects including coarctation of the aorta is unknown. Unfortunately, the only known risk factor of congenital heart disease is family history. If someone in your family or if you have suffered from congenital heart disease, then there is a higher risk of your child having the condition at birth.
The true diagnosis of coarctation of the aorta requires an Echocardiogram or a heart ultrasound. However, before this step, physicians will do a thorough physical exam to determine a clinical diagnosis. Physical exam findings in coarctation of the aorta include delayed pulses in the legs compared to the arms and higher blood pressures in the arms compared to the legs. In some severe cases there are even differences in the blood oxygen levels between the upper and lower extremities.
Whether coarctation of the aorta was diagnosed in infancy or in adulthood, the final treatment will be surgery. Surgery needs to be done to widen the area of the aorta that is narrowed, which drastically improves or cures the symptoms.
Coarctation of the aorta is part of a group of congenital heart diseases that mostly affect infants. If caught early, surgery can be completed early and symptoms can be cured.