Statistics and Symptoms You Might Want to Know About

I would like to apologize to everyone for the great delay in posting any updates on Daniel's condition and further information about Coarctation of the aorta. In the past two months, work has heaped itself upon me and I could do nothing but welcome it with open arms!

The Symptoms:
Sometimes it can be difficult to tell if a child has Coarctation of the aorta. These are some signs a radiologist looks for in a ecocardiogram:

• Widening of the left subclavian artery with or without an apparent double aortic knuckle and with modification of the oesophageal impression. I have no clue what that means.
• Discrepancy of pulsation between the two components of the double aortic knuckle.
• Demonstration of the coarctation by angiocardiography.
• Heart murmur

I decided to add the heart murmur, because we knew Daniel had one since he got his first immunizations. The doctor's didn't seem alarmed about Daniel's heart murmur, so neither were we. We were always told that the murmur would eventually go away.

I found the outward symptoms to be interesting and helpful. They are:

• pale skin
• fainting
• heavy sweating
• high blood pressure
• frequent nose bleeds
• frequent headaches
  
• leg cramps
• visible pulsation of the neck

The greatest symptom is a significant difference in blood pressure between the upper and lower extremities of the body. Now your you or your child may not have all of these symptoms, but if you notice more than one, then I would consult with a doctor. However, the sad story about doctors is that they usually will shoot down any upfront diagnosis you give to them unless it was by another physician. Liesl had to be pushy with her doctor before he suggested sending Daniel to a specialist. Perhaps doctors view suggestions by anyone other than another physician to be an insult to their position and education. On a side note. The best way to approach a doctor is to make it seem like they are coming up with the solution by you asking simple questions to confirm your initial opinion of what's going on. But that's just my opinion.

How common is Coarctation of the Aorta?
The probability of a child born with Coarctation of the aorta (COA) has been found to be 1 in 80,000. Of that number male babies have a 3 to 1 higher chance of having it over girls. About 50% of children/adults of those who have COA also had a heart murmur as one of their symptoms. COA makes up anywhere from 5% to 10% of all congenital heart conditions.

What happens if nothing is done about the condition?
The severity of each condition varies among children and adult, but the typical lifespan is between 34 and 40 years of age. I read one journal that said," infantile cases die in the first decade. The ones with symptoms before 15 die before the age of 30." The message I get from all of the journals I have read is simple. The earlier COA is detected, the better.