Interrupted aorta diagnosed in a 51-year-old woman

Abstract

A 51-year-old lady presented with increasing heart failure symptoms and palpitations. She had recently been diagnosed with a congenital ventricular septal defect, bicuspid aortic valve, and Eisenmenger's syndrome. There was clinical evidence of right heart failure and differential clubbing and cyanosis affecting the feet but not hands. A cardiac magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated interruption of the aortic arch beyond the left subclavian artery, with the descending aorta perfused entirely through a large patent ductus arteriosus.