Pseudocoarctation of the aorta

What it means

Pseudocoarctation is a congenital anomaly of kinking, or buckling, of the aorta without a pressure gradient across the lesion. It is characterized by elongation and kinking of the aorta at the level of the ligamentum arteriosum.

Note that the ligamentum arteriosum, which develops from the ductus arteriosus, is attached to the superior surface of the pulmonary artery and the inferior surface of the aortic arch.

Rare diseases that can present with this1

The range is how often this sign appears among people diagnosed with each disease — it is not a probability of having any of them. Many of these signs also occur in common, non-rare conditions, and Orphanet separately records 1 disease where this sign is specifically absent. A sign on this page is a conversation to have with a clinician, not a conclusion.

Part of the broader category