Renovascular Hypertension with Superimposed Aortic Arch Baroreceptor Failure: Case Report and Review of Literature

BACKGROUND: Atherosclerotic renal artery diseases are among the most common causes of secondary hypertension. Baroreceptors, as carotid and aortic, are important regulatory mechanisms of blood pressure; their disruption can lead to labile blood pressure due to sympathetic overactivity: an entity called neurogenic hypertension. A disease such as aortic dissection can lead to a challenging combined etiology of secondary hypertension. It can affect both or one of the renal arteries leading to a renovascular pathology that can cause hypertension through RAAS activation. Also, surgical repair of the dissected aortic arch can disrupt baroreceptors leading to neurogenic hypertension. Case Report. We report a case of an 83-year-old female patient investigated for recurrent episodes of aphasia. She has a history of hypertension and coronary artery disease. Surgical history is significant for aortic valve replacement complicated by type A aortic dissection requiring surgical repair. Following surgery, the patient developed difficult-to-control and labile blood pressure. Workup included a CT angiogram of the abdominal aorta that showed an infrarenal dominant abdominal aortic aneurysm with juxtarenal aortic dissection; these findings were similar to previous findings. A diagnosis of aortic baroreceptor failure following aortic dissection repair was established, which lead to labile hypertension with superimposed renovascular pathology due to unilateral compromised renal artery blood flow following aortic dissection and thrombosis. CONCLUSIONS: This report highlights the importance of accurate diagnosis of secondary hypertension and its underlying mechanisms, as this has a huge impact on the choice of therapy to avoid undertreatment or overtreatment of hypertension.