Severe aortic coarctation in an adult patient with normal brachial blood pressure

The present case shows that a normal brachial blood pressure (BP) does not exclude severe coarctation and should be considered in normotensive patients presenting with a systolic murmur and/or unexplained severe left ventricular hypertrophy. Congenital coarctation of the aorta is a narrowing of the descending aorta, usually located distal to the origin of the subclavian artery, causing hypertension in the upper part of the body. This condition may be undiagnosed until adult life where the clinical presentation most often is high BP in the upper extremities. A 57-year-old patient with severe aortic coarctation and left ventricular hypertrophy presented with normal brachial BP. However, standard suprasternal view by echocardiography indicated coarctation. Multislice computed tomographic (CT) angiography revealed an uncommon location of the aortic narrowing with the right and left subclavian arteries originating below the area of coarctation, explaining the equally low BP in both upper extremities.