Interruption of aortic arch without associated cardiac abnormalities.

Abstract

Interruption of the aortic arch is an infrequent congenital anomaly. In its usual variety it is almost constantly associated with a persistent ductus arteriosus which provides adequate blood flow to the descending aorta. Coincidental cardiac malformations are often present, such as a ventricular septal defect or a bicuspid aortic valve, among many others. Isolated absence or interruption of the aortic arch, without a ductus or any other cardiac defect is an exceptional finding. In our search through the published reports, we were able to trace only three previous reports of this pathology (Pillsbury, Lower, and Shumway, I964; Zetterquist, I967; Morgan et al., 1970), all of them diagnosed in life. We describe here the clinical and angiographic data of a patient fulfilling the criteria for the diagnosis of this rare condition.