Jakarta, ThedailyID — A 12-year-old boy in China was rushed to hospital after his blood pressure reached 225/158 mmHg, an extremely high reading for a child. Doctors eventually identified a rare condition called coral reef aorta, in which hard deposits form inside the aorta, the body’s main artery.
The case was reported in the Journal of Medical Case Reports in July 2026 by a medical team from Xinjiang Medical University Hospital in Urumqi. The researchers described the condition as extremely rare worldwide.
The boy had experienced recurring mild headaches for more than five months. Episodes lasted three to four hours and came with dizziness, fatigue and vomiting.
Doctors initially diagnosed him with polyarteritis nodosa, an inflammatory disease that damages small and medium-sized arteries. Further examinations revealed kidney and spleen infarctions, which occur when tissue is damaged due to an interrupted blood supply.
Intravenous fluids and blood pressure medication failed to control his condition adequately. Additional examinations then revealed coral reef aorta, a rare disorder involving hard, stone-like deposits inside the aorta.
These deposits can obstruct blood flow to branches supplying organs such as the kidneys and intestines. In adults, the condition is often associated with cardiovascular risk factors, including high cholesterol, diabetes, hypertension and smoking.
However, the boy had no high cholesterol, diabetes or smoking history. Doctors also ruled out disorders involving calcium and phosphate metabolism.
The medical team subsequently discovered that the child had active pulmonary tuberculosis. Although tuberculosis can cause inflammation throughout the body, the researchers noted that it is not a common trigger for coral reef aorta. Further research is needed to establish whether the two conditions were connected in this case.
The boy underwent a procedure to open a narrowed renal artery. Following treatment, his blood pressure gradually decreased and remained controlled during follow-up.
A similar case was reported in 2024 involving another 12-year-old boy who had undergone surgery to repair a narrowed aorta during infancy. The report highlights the rarity of coral reef aorta in children and the challenges doctors face when diagnosing the condition.
