Study objective: To investigate potential vascular and neuroendocrine determinants of altered blood pressure (BP) regulation in patients previously operated on for aortic coarctation. Design, setting and patients: We prospectively re-evaluated 45 patients operated on for aortic coarctation at Strasbourg University Hospital over a 13-year period. Four of these patients were less than 2 years old at the time of the operation and four were older than 20 years. Patient age and time since the operation were on average 21 ؎ 13 years and 8 ؎ 3 years, respectively. Surgery consisted of a resection with end-to-end anastomosis for 18 patients, angioplasty (8), prosthesis (4) or sub-clavian flap (15). Results: Despite repair of the coarctation, about 40% of the patients showed an abnormal BP status at rest. The