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Objective:To monitor the blood pressure in pediatric patients with coarctation of the aorta (CoA) before and 8 years after surgery, and explore the mechanism of elevated blood pressure in pediatric patients with repaired CoA.Methods:A cohort of 23 pediatric patients who underwent CoA repair between January 2010 and October 2010 in Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Center was studied. And 20 age-, sex-match patients with isolated ventricular septal defect (VSD) who underwent surgery at the same time, 20 age-, sex-match health patients with normal echocardiographic findings were included in the study. Systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), arm-leg SBP gradient, right carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT), serum transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) were monitored at baseline(1 day before surgery) and 8-year follow-up (8 years after surgery).Results:There were no differences in SBP and DBP among patients with CoA, patients with VSD and health children at baseline ( P>0.05). But at 8-year follow-up, 2 patients with CoA exhibited hypertension. Not only that, patients with CoA had higher SBP than patients with VSD and health children at 8-year follow-up ( P<0.05). Patients with CoA had higher arm-leg SBP gradient than patients with VSD and health children at baseline ( P<0.01). But there were no differences in arm-leg SBP among patients with CoA, patients with VSD and health children at 8-year follow-up ( P>0.05). Patients with CoA had increased CIMT and higher serum levels of TGF-β1 at baseline and 8-year follow-up ( P<0.05). The preoperative levels of CIMT and serum TGF-β1 in the patients with CoA were highly positively correlated with their levels at 8-year follow-up, respectively ( P<0.01). There was a strong correlation between the levels of CIMT and serum TGF-β1 in patients with CoA, both preoperatively and postoperatively ( P<0.01). The preoperative and postoperative levels of CIMT and serum TGF-β1 in the patients with CoA were highly positively correlated with SBP at 8-year follow-up, respectively( P<0.05). Conclusion:Although surgery can successfully cure the anatomical " stenosis" , patients with CoA have elevated systolic blood pressure than normal people and patients with simple congenital heart disease (such as VSD). And some of the patients with CoA suffer from hypertension at long-term follow-up, even they are normotensive preoperatively. It may be related to vascular remodeling, in which TGF-β signaling pathway may be involved. Monitoring CIMT and TGF-β1 in patients with CoA preoperatively may be significative for prediction for the levels of SBP postoperatively.
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Objective To evaluate the endothelium-dependent vasodilation in children after repair for coarctation of aota (CoA). Methods A group of 20 children having undergone CoA repair between January 2010 and October 2010 in Guangzhou Women and Children′s Medical Center were include in the study , including 12 infants aged less than 6 months and 8 ones aged more than 6 months. Another 20 healthy children were enrolled during the same period as controls. All the subjects underwent monitoring of resting blood pressure and flow-mediated dilation (FMD) of the brachial artery in 4-year follow-up. Results There were no resting hypertension in all subjects , but FMD in the CoA group was higher than in the control group and so it was with the early surgery group and non early surgery group. Conclusion The surgical repair for coarctation of aorta could not cure the vascular function impairment satisfactorily , neither is the early surgery effective in alleviating the injuries in vascular endothelia.
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Purpose To evaluate the carotid artery structure and diastolic function of the brachial artery in children with coarctation of aorta (CoA) using high-frequency ultrasound. Materials and Methods Twenty-four cases of children with CoA were selected, among them seven cases were simple CoA and 17 cases were combined with other cardiac malformations, and 20 cases of simple ventricular septal defect (VSD) children and 20 healthy children over the same period were selected as the control groups. Carotid artery intima-media thickness (IMT) and brachial artery flow-mediated vasodilation (FMD) in all subjects were evaluated using high-frequency ultrasound, vascular structure and functional changes were compared before CoA correction and VSD repair treatment. Results Carotid artery IMT of CoA group was (0.47±0.12) mm, which was significantly larger than the VSD group (0.41±0.10) mm and the control group (0.40±0.09) mm, and the difference was statistically significant (F=4.275, P0.05) between the VSD group and the control group for carotid artery IMT and brachial artery FMD. Conclusion In children with CoA, besides the structure abnormalities of the narrowing vascular, there is also the combination of structural and fuctional changes such as carotid artery intima-media complex thickening and brachial artery flow-mediated dilation function decrease.
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Objective Even after successful surgical repair,patients with coarctation of the aorta (CoA) are at high risk of long-term morbidity and mortality due to cardiovascular events,which is probably related to persistent arterial disfunction during long-terr follow-up after operation,The aim of the study was to explore the alterations of vascular structure and function in children with successfully repaired CoA in the short-and mid-term follow-up.Methods A cohort of 20 children who underwent CoA repair between January 2010 and October 2010 in Guangzhou women and children's Medical Center was studied.There were 14 males and 6 females in CoA group,which comprised 6 patients with isolated CoA,14 patients with CoA associated with intracardia anomalies,whose median age of operation was 4 months (rang from lmonth to 10.0 years).And 20 patients with isolated ventricular septal defect (VSD) were included as VSD group during the same time,with 12 males and 8 females,whose median age of operation was 5 months (rang from 1 month to 12.0 years).Resting blood pressure,flow-mediated dilation (FMD) of the brachial artery,carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) were compared in CoA group and VSD group,including preoperative media data and follow-up of 1 month,6 months and 1 year.In addition,as comparison to the operation group,20 health children with normal echocardiographic findings,whose median age was 5 months (rang from 3 month to 10.0 years),were selected as health group for the 1-year following up.None of them had obesity,hyperlipidemia,diabetes mellitus,metabolic diseases or systemic inflammatory disease.Results As a result of the datas before operation and those I month,6 months and 1 year after operation,all children were normotensive at rest.In the same period,Carotid IMT in CoA group[(0.47 ± 0.10)mm,(0.49 ±0.10) mm,(0.57 ±0.07)mm,(0.61 ± 0.07) mm]was significantly thicker than that in VSD group[(0.41 ±0.11) mm,(0.43 ±0.11)mm,(0.51 ±0.08) mm,(0.55 ±0.08) mm](P＜0.05) and health group[(0.40 ±0.09) mm,(0.42 ±0.11)mm,(0.50 ±0.08) mm,(0.57 ±0.08) mm](P ＜0.05),Brachial artery FMI in children with CoA[(5.4,6 ±1.51)％,(5.71 ±1.88)％,(5.42±1.69)％,(5.27±1.02)％]was significantly lower than that in the VSD control group[(6.69±1.45) ％,(6.66±1.21)％,(6.81 ±1.03)％,(6.43±1.34)％](P＜0.05) and health group[(6.59 ±1.84)％,(6.84±1.41)％,(6.91 ±1.31)％,(6.56±1.62)％](P＜0.05).Significant difference could not be found in neither the IMT nor the FMI between the VSI control group and health group in 4 period respectively,P ＞ 0.05.Conclusion Children after successful coarctation repair have abnomal structural and functional properties of the aorta above the place of coarctation even their blood pressure at rest is normal.These results confirm that the alterations in mechanical properties of carotid arteries as well as the generalized endothelial dysfunction in children with coarctation of the aorta are persistent,which can not be prevented or reversed by surgical repair,and which may partly explain the high incidence of cardiovascular disease observed in their adulthood and reduced life expectancy,furtherly supporting the claim that coartation of the aorta is a systemic vascular disorder which needs long-term follow-up of vascular function.