What are the signs and symptoms of coarctation of the aorta?
—FELIX N. CHIEN, DO, Newport Beach, Calif.
Coarctation can cause heart failure in infants, but adult patients are usually asymptomatic, and the coarcts are detected during hypertension workups. Common signs are high BP in the arms but not the legs, delayed femoral pulses, a murmur attributable to the coarct or associated bicuspid aortic valve or to other congenital heart anomalies.
—Peter F. Cohn, MD (132-7)
