Doppler Echocardiographic Indices in Aortic Coarctation: A Comparison of Profiles before and After Stenting

Background: Aortic coarctation is one of the most common congenital heart defects. Nowadays, percutaneous stenting is an accepted form of treatment for isolated coarctation of the aorta by Balloon expandable endovascular stents, Diagnosis and evaluation of coarctation is of great importance, not only before stenting but also after implantation, in order to assess the success of procedure and occurrence of restenosis in followup. Cardiac magnetic resonance is the imaging modality of choice. However, it has limited availability or clinical contraindication. On the other hand, two-dimensional and Doppler echocardiographic techniques are simple, widely available, imaging tools which can be used for the indirect evaluation of coarctation.