A 56-year-old man with coarctation of the aorta with refractory hypertension

Abstract

A 56-year-old man was admitted to our hospital for a complain of headache with a history of one week. He had a history of hypertension for more than 30 years, but his blood pressure was not well controlled with medication. After admission, it was found that his blood pressure of the lower limbs was obvious lower than that of the upper limbs. Further chest CT examination revealed that his descending aorta was severely stenosis with calcification, which may be account for his high blood pressure in upper limbs. After careful evaluation of the patient’s condition, we finally adopted interventional therapy and achieved good results. After operation, the patient’s upper limbs blood pressure returned to normal, and the blood pressure gradient difference between the upper and lower limbs disappeared.