Intra-arterial blood pressures at rest and during exercise after surgery for coarctation of the aorta.

Nineteen young men operated upon for coarctation of the aorta during childhood, between the ages of 6 and 14 yr, were studied. Twelve patients had a systolic hypertension in the right arm at rest, and generally during exercise, measured intra-arterially. All patients but 2 had systolic gradients between the right arm and leg at rest and even more so during exercise. There was no significant correlation between the degree of hypertension or gradient on the one hand and the width of the anastomosis, age at surgery or years since surgery on the other in this group of patients. No better correlation was found when the patients were studied during exercise. Thus, blood pressure measurements can not reveal whether a re- or rest-coarctation is at hand. It can be questioned whether an early operation could prevent postoperative hypertension in the long run.