الفهرس 
Development of the aortic archOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Congenital heart disease (CHD) has a global prevalence of near 9 per 1000 births. Aortic coarctation is a common form of congenital cardiovascular disease, forming the diagnosis in 5–8% of all patients with congenital heart disease and occurring in approximately 1 in every 3000 live births. It may present as an isolated lesion or associated with several other cardiac and vascular anomalies, such as bicuspid aortic valve, ventricular septal defect, patent ductus arteriosus and aortic arch hypoplasia (1–4). Coarctation of the aorta is defined by a stenosis at a point in the aorta, usually at the isthmus, which may be discrete or elongated, with varying degrees of severity. The consequent increase in resistance to flow causes upper body hypertension and reduced blood supply to the lower limbs. The pressure difference across the coarctation, clinically referred to as the pressure gradient, is commonly used to define the need for a repair as well as to gauge whether the repair was successful or not (5). It may have an acute presentation in the form of heart failure in the neonate or may be discovered incidentally in adult because of severe treatment-resistant hypertension. Without treatment it causes long-term complications such as accelerated coronary heart disease, stroke, aortic dissection, and congestive heart failure.