External aortic diameter ratios: a reliable method to diagnose preductal aortic coarctation

Aortic Coarctation (AC) is associated with sudden infantile death. Current pathological diagnosis depends on absolute vessel size which is prone to errors due to different rates of development. This study explores the use of ratios of the external diameter between the aortic isthmus (AI), ascending aorta (AA) and the descending aortas (DA). Our study found that while the vessel diameter increased with gestational age, the ratios remained constant and are therefore preferable than absolute size. This simple and highly reproducible method will allow more cases of AC that may be misdiagnosed to get a proper pathological diagnosis.