Coarctation of the abdominal aorta in a child: morphometric analysis of the arterial lesion.

Coarctation of the abdominal aorta with associated narrowing of the origin of major visceral arteries is a rare cause of life-threatening hypertension. We describe a 9-year-old male with hypertension and recent onset of headache and dizziness who was subsequently found to have a suprarenal coarctation with involvement of the proximal renal arteries. The patient died following a left cerebrovascular accident associated with recent thrombosis in the left middle cerebral and internal carotid arteries. Morphometric analysis of the aortic coarctation revealed that a reduction in outside diameter of the vessel was complicated by marked intimal thickening which caused further stenosis of the lumen. Medial thickness was constant, and elastic fibers of the media were intact at the level of coarctation.