Blood Pressures in Aortic Coarctation

Reviews by Abbott1and Blackford2have shown that about 300 cases of coarctation of the aorta have been reported. In very few of these cases, however, was the diagnosis made during the life of the patient; and studies of the blood pressure were limited by the methods available for estimating it.3This communication describes the results of direct optical registration of the blood pressures in various arteries in a case of aortic coarctation when the patient was at rest, during and after temporary occlusion of an artery, coughing and straining, and after administration of epinephrine and of amyl nitrite. MATERIAL AND METHODS The subject of these studies, F. H., was a Negro, aged 26, of good physical development but of a very low grade of mentality. On admission to the hospital in 1932, his chief complaint was attacks of pain over the heart and in the left