Echocardiographic evaluation of systolic and diastolic function in postoperative coarctation patients.

Postoperative coarctation (CoA) patients are often found to have signs of persistent myocardial dysfunction. M-mode echocardiography was performed to study left ventricular (LV) size, mass, and systolic function and Doppler ultrasonography to study LV filling and flow velocity in the LV outflow tract and aorta in 28 "healthy" postoperative CoA patients (5-21 years) and 28 age- and sex-matched controls. The early (E) and late (A) diastolic transmitral velocities were significantly higher in the patient group than in the controls (p < 0.05). Other diastolic parameters (isovolumic relaxation time, E/A ratio, and deceleration time of the early diastolic velocity) were similar in the two groups (p = NS). The left atrial diameter, LV wall average, end-diastolic diameter of the LV and LV mass were higher in the patients than controls (p < 0.05). The patients also had a higher stroke volume, cardiac output, and cardiac index than the controls (p < 0.01). The fractional shortening was similar in the two groups (p = NS). Blood flow velocities in both the LV outflow tract and aorta were higher in the patients than the controls (p < 0.0002). We found LV hypertrophy with signs of a hyperdynamic circulation (increased cardiac index and stroke volume) in our patients. An increase in A is associated with LV hypertrophy and seems to be a sensitive marker of diastolic abnormality. The rise in E is paradoxical but has been seen in other studies. The increased blood flow velocity in the LV outflow tract suggests obstruction to LV outflow and increased flow in the descending aorta is due to residual coarctation.

Exercise-induced hypertension after corrective surgery for coarctation of the aorta.

The purpose of this investigation was to study exercise-induced hypertension after surgical repair of coarctation of the aorta (CoA). Groups of 27 patients with CoA and 27 healthy control subjects, 6-21 years old, were exercised to exhaustion using the Bruce protocol. Fourteen patients had undergone surgery during the first year of life (group A), and 13 patients had been operated on later (group B). The pulse rate and systolic blood pressures (BP) in the arm and leg were measured before, during, and after exercise to evaluate changes in the BP and the arm/leg BP gradient with exercise. The systolic BP was significantly higher in the patients than in the controls at all stages of the exercise test (p < 0.01), as was the arm/leg BP gradient both before and after exercise (p < 0.01); the latter increased significantly with exercise in the patient group (p < 0.05). We found hypertension to be a more common and severe problem in group B patients, who had higher blood pressures than their controls at rest and during exercise (p < 0.05). Exercise-induced hypertension was also more common in group B (23%) than in group A (7%). We conclude that exercise-induced hypertension and recoarctation are problems in postoperative CoA patients. Moreover, exercise-induced hypertension is more common in patients with CoA operated on after the first year of life.