Pulsed Doppler findings in patients with coarctation of the aorta.

We used combined two-dimensional and pulsed Doppler echocardiography to examine 37 infants and children with coarctation of the aorta and 19 normal subjects. The ages ranged from 1 day to 16 years. We compared the differences between the Doppler flow signal from the ascending aorta and the descending aorta below the coarctation in each patient, as well as the differences between the corresponding flow signals in the aorta of patients with coarctation and normal subjects. Six variables were measured from each Doppler signal: acceleration slope (peak rate of acceleration), acceleration time (time from onset of flow to the peak systolic frequency), antegrade flow time, peak systolic frequency, peak velocity of flow, and deceleration slope (peak rate of deceleration). In patients with coarctation, each of these variables was significantly different in the descending aorta compared with the ascending aorta. There was a decrease in the acceleration slope (14 +/- 13 vs 87 +/- 67 kHz/sec) (mean +/- SD), peak systolic frequency (1.8 +/- 1.0 vs 5.2 +/- 1.9 kHz), peak velocity of flow (0.70 +/- 0.40 vs 1.4 +/- 0.44 m/sec), and deceleration slope (11 +/- 11 vs 27 +/- 12 kHz/sec). There was also a prolongation of the acceleration time (140 +/- 50 vs 88 +/- 22 msec) and antegrade flow time (330 +/- 120 vs 270 +/- 50 msec). In addition, these variables in the descending aorta of patients with coarctation were significantly different from those in the descending aorta of normal subjects.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)