An Aortic Deformity Simulating Mediastinal Tumor: A Subclinical Form of Coarctation

¹ Department of Internal Medicine, The Lahey Clinic, Boston, Massachusetts.
² Fellow in Internal Medicine, The Lahey Clinic, Boston, Massachusetts.
³ Department of Surgery, The Lahey Clinic, Boston, Massachusetts.

Three examples of an unusual aortic deformity have been described. All were found in adults without clinical signs or symptoms referable to the chest. In all three, the anomaly was an incidental finding on routine roentgenologic examination of the chest.

The deformity appeared in the postero-anterior chest roentgenogram as a mediastinal soft tissue density overlying a normal. aortic arch. The true nature of the aortic abnormality was best seen in the left anterior oblique chest position.

In one case in which operation was performed there was a kinking deformity of the aorta toward the pulmonary artery at the attachment of a short ductus arterious. Minimal narrowing of the aorta was present.

This buckling deformity has been interpreted as a subclinical coarctation of the aorta in which the external traction or pulling deformity predominated and the constricting element was minimal or absent. The scanty literature on the subject is discussed.