View clinical trials related to Aortic Coarctation.
Filter by:Coarctation of the aorta (CoA) accounts for approximately 8% of all congenital heart problems. Patients with CoA are well known to have an increased rates of early heart disease, high blood pressure, heart failure and stroke. Abnormal arterial function (dilation and constriction of the blood vessels) has been observed in these patients and likely contributes to the increased risk of cardiovascular problems. However, therapies targeted at improving arterial function have not been investigated in this population. Statin therapy (cholesterol medicines like Lipitor) have been studied in other subgroups of patients with abnormal arterial function and has shown benefit in improving arterial function and reducing risk of cardiovascular problems. The investigators hypothesize that patients with CoA have abnormal arterial function leading to increased cardiovascular risk. We further hypothesize that statin therapy may improve this problem. We plan to compile a complete database of information regarding these patients cardiovascular health and propose to then examine the effect of atorvastatin (Lipitor) on arterial function as measured by changes in arm arterial function tests.
Recently, a paper was published that compared outcomes of patients requiring repair of aortic coarctation and ventricular septal defect. Some surgeons opt to repair both defects in one surgery while other surgeons do the repair in two separate operations. Recently at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, we have adopted the practice of correcting both defects during the same operation but through two separate incisions (one on the chest and the other through the ribs on the side. This reduces the amount of time the patient is on the heart-lung bypass machine during surgery. This study is a review of patient charts to compare outcomes of patients who have had surgery to repair their coarctation and VSD during 2002 through 2005.