How to narrowly avoid aortic coarctation
2016-02-28 Department of Cardiology Wuhan Union Hospital West Hospital
In the family of cardiovascular lesions, there is a kind of lesion menacing and abnormal – aortic coarctation, do you understand?
This disease, the morbidity and mortality rate within 48 hours up to 50%, within a week the morbidity and mortality rate of 60% to 70%, and even up to 90%, especially type I, II aortic coarctation, without surgery rare long-term survivors.
What is aortic coarctation
Aortic coarctation, as the name implies, is a break in the intima of the aorta due to a lesion in the vessel wall, and blood flows into the break, tearing the aorta and forming an aortic coarctation. As the aorta becomes weak due to the tearing of the wall, it is likely to rupture at the slightest movement of wind. Once the aortic coarctation ruptures, the blood flows out of the vessel in large quantities, causing the blood circulation to fail, which means death, which is why aortic coarctation is very dangerous.
Main Causes
The main cause of aortic coarctation is hypertension, other causes such as atherosclerosis, Marfan syndrome, aortic valve malformation, thoracic aortic aneurysm are not uncommon, and pregnancy is the most common cause of aortic coarctation in young women.
What should patients and their families do in the face of such a dangerous lesion? Take a look at these suggestions.
1. Don’t delay and give your doctor a little more trust and understanding.
Even experienced doctors have difficulty diagnosing aortic coarctation in a short period of time. When clinicians suspect this disease, please actively cooperate with your doctor to improve cardiac ultrasound (screening test) and whole aorta CTA (confirmatory test) and other related tests.
2. Don’t be nervous, rest in bed and don’t move around.
After the diagnosis of aortic coarctation is confirmed, it is important to fully understand its risks, remain calm, take absolute bed rest, actively cooperate with the doctor for medical medication and control blood pressure and heart rate as soon as possible, because controlling blood pressure and heart rate plays an important role in preventing further tearing and rupture of the coarctation. Even with aggressive medical treatment, aortic coarctation still has a high morbidity and mortality rate, which is a medical pity.
3. Don’t hesitate to take a chance when the economy allows.
Type III aortic coarctation has a relatively good prognosis and can be considered for intra-aortic stenting to close the tear and significantly reduce the death rate; Type I and II have a relatively poor prognosis and require surgical artificial vessel grafting, but the cost of treatment is high, the risk of surgery is great, and there is still a high risk of death after surgery. While drug treatment is carried out, the family should discuss and decide on the next treatment plan as soon as possible, and if economic conditions allow, it may be worthwhile to give it a try.