Comparative Analysis: Advanced Health Assessment of Aortic Conditions

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the differences between aortic stenosis and coarctation of the aorta, two distinct conditions affecting the aorta. It details the variations in their causes, signs, symptoms, diagnostic methods, management strategies, and treatment interventions. Aortic stenosis involves the abnormal narrowing of blood vessels due to lesions reducing the lumen space, while coarctation of the aorta is a specific narrowing around the ductus arteriosus insertion point, common in infants. The report outlines specific symptoms for each condition in different age groups, gold standard diagnostic procedures such as cardiac catheterization, CT scans, MRI, ECG, and echocardiograms, and various treatment options including stenting, balloon angioplasty, medication, surgery for coarctation, and valvuloplasty, valve replacement, and lifestyle modifications for aortic stenosis. The document concludes by referencing relevant studies, offering a detailed comparison valuable for healthcare students and professionals. Desklib provides this document along with other solved assignments to aid students.

Running head: ADVANCED HEALTH ASSESSMENT 1
Advanced Health Assessment
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Advanced Health Assessment
Heart is the organ that is responsible for the pumping of blood to and from all the parts of
the body. The pumping of blood is an important process because it enables the body to function
normally. It supplies nutrients and oxygen and helps in the elimination of wastes from the body.
For the heart to effectively discharge its roles, all its parts like aorta, ventricles, and auricles have
to be fully-functional. However, just like any other organ, the heart is affected by some diseases
that might interfere with its effective functioning. Some of these diseases include coarctation of
the aorta and aortic stenosis. The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to present a comprehensive
and critical analysis of the differences between coarctation of the aorta and aortic stenosis.
Signs and Symptoms
As a matter of fact, coarctation of the aorta and aortic stenosis are two distinct ailments
that affect the aorta. Despite their negative impacts on aorta, the two diseases have lots of
differences between them. The two diseases differ because they do not have similar causes,
signs, symptoms, diagnoses, management, and treatment interventions. On its part, stenosis
simply refers to the abnormal narrowing of the blood vessels which take place as a result of the
reduction of the lumen space by lesions (Tribouilloy, Rusinaru, Maréchaux, Castel, Debry,
Maizel & Lévy, 2015). Such changes cause the narrowing of the lumen because they lead to the
contraction of the smooth muscles hence leading to the difficulties in the opening of the aortic
valve. Meanwhile, coarctation of the aorta is condition in which the aorta narrows, not in all
parts, but around the area in which the ductus arteriosus is inserted. This heart defect is common
amongst the infants who are prone to aortic arch. Unlike stenosis, coarctation is a defect that can

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be pre or post-ductual (Hofbeck, Deeg & Rupprecht, 2017). Meaning, if not treated in time, it
might have an enormous impact on the prognosis of the child.
Coarctation has got its unique signs and symptoms through which it manifests. Its
symptoms are not uniform because they differ between the infants, older children, and adults.
The manifestation of the symptoms also varies depending on a patient’s condition. However, for
the infants which constitute a big proportion of the population that is under a threat of this
disease, the signs and symptoms include heavy sweating, irritability, pale skin, and difficulty in
feeding and breathing. Such signs can appear in the new-born children immediately after birth if,
at all, they have severe cases of coarctation. The signs that appear to the older children include
chest pain, nose-bleeding, cold feet, muscle weakness, headache, and High Blood Pressure.
Although children with severe coarctation can show signs early in life, it might be hard for those
without a severe condition to show the same until during adulthood when the signs appear
(Hofbeck, Deeg & Rupprecht, 2017). Just like coarctation, stenosis has its own signs and
symptoms through which it can be identified and distinguished from other ailments. The signs
include swelling of the ankles, swelling of the feet, slower and abnormal rate of weight-gain,
inability to eat enough food, fatigue, inactivity, chest pain, fainting, dizziness, and shortness of
breath, irregular heartbeat, and abnormal heart murmur (Tribouilloy, Rusinaru, Maréchaux,
Castel, Debry, Maizel & Lévy, 2015). It is only through such signs that one can be presumed to
be infected by the defect.
Gold Standard Diagnosis
Since coarctation of the aorta and aortic stenosis are defects which have distinct signs and
symptoms, they can be diagnosed so well. Although it might not be easy to distinguish these
defects from one another, the medic should apply appropriate diagnoses to do so. When a patient

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visits a healthcare facility, the healthcare provider should diagnose the defects by taking a
number of interventions. The diagnoses alternatives for coarctation are cardiac catheterization,
Computerized Tomography (CT) Scan, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (IRM), chest X-Ray,
Electrocardiogram (ECG), and echocardiogram (Hofbeck, Deeg & Rupprecht, 2017). On the
other hand, stenosis can be diagnosed by using cardiac catheterization, cardiac MRI, CT scan,
exercise test, chest X-Ray, stress test, ECG, and echocardiogram.
Figure 1: CT scanned images of coarctation of the aorta

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Figure 2: MRI images of aortic stenosis
Gold Standard Treatment
However, when it comes to treatment, it is worth noting that the two defects can be
treated if appropriate interventions are applied. For coarctation, the gold standard treatment can
be got from stening, balloon angioplasty, use of medication, and patch aortoplasty, bypass graft
repair, subclavian flap aortoplasty, and end-to-end anatomosis surgery. Nevertheless, for
stenosis, the gold standard treatment can be achieved by balloon valvuloplasty, Transcatheter
aortic valve replacement (TAVR), aortic valve replacement, aortic valve repair, biological valve
replacement, and mechanical valve replacement surgeries as well as lifestyle modifications like
avoidance of smoking, stress management, physical fitness, maintenance of healthy weight, and
healthy diet (Tribouilloy, Rusinaru, Maréchaux, Castel, Debry, Maizel & Lévy, 2015). If
properly applied, any of these interventions can help in providing an effective treatment to the
defect.

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References
Hofbeck, M., Deeg, K. H., & Rupprecht, T. (2017). Coarctation of the Aorta. In Doppler
Echocardiography in Infancy and Childhood (pp. 283-296). Cham: Springer, Cham.
Tribouilloy, C., Rusinaru, D., Maréchaux, S., Castel, A. L., Debry, N., Maizel, J., ... & Lévy, F.
(2015). Low-gradient, low-flow severe aortic stenosis with preserved left ventricular
ejection fraction: characteristics, outcome, and implications for surgery. Journal of the
American College of Cardiology, 65(1), 55-66.