A56-year-old woman presented with acute confusion. Medical history was unremarkable, and she was not on any regular medication. On examination, she was hemodynamically stable and in sinus rhythm. She had global dysphasia, right-sided upper motor neuron facial paralysis, and hemiplegia as well as right hemineglect. Cardiovascular examination was unremarkable, and no carotid bruits were audible. ...

Pulmonary embolism and concomitant right atrial thrombus entrapped in a patent foramen ovale (PFO) is a rare, unusual finding in echocardiography. The diagnosis of paradoxical embolism is usually presumptive when PFO is detected by echocardiography. We herein reported a case of a 53-year-old patient presenting with pulmonary embolism in which a thrombusin-transit through a PFO was found and dis...

Neurologic injury subsequent to decompression from diving may be due to paradoxical arterialization of venous gas emboli. Of 40 divers who performed 53 open water dives after being tested for a patent foramen ovale (PFO), arterial gas emboli were detected in 7 of 13 dives, which resulted in venous bubbles. In five of these seven dives, there was evidence of a PFO by contrast transcranial Dopple...

Patent foramen ovale (PFO), a common congenital cardiac anomaly in the general population, is more prevalent among patients with stroke 50 years of age, especially patients with “cryptogenic” stroke. That a PFO can serve as a conduit for brain emboli is not in dispute. Right-to-left shunting is easily demonstrated on echocardiography with agitated saline. If the bubbles (ie, emboli) can get fro...

The foramen ovale is an opening between the top 2 chambers (atria) of the heart that is present during the development of a fetus within the womb but typically closes after birth. During fetal growth, the foramen ovale serves to bypass the developing lungs, shunting oxygen – rich blood derived from the mother’s circulation directly from the right side of the heart to the left, where it is pumpe...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Subclinical atrial fibrillation (AF) and patent foramen ovale (PFO) are the major causes of cryptogenic stroke, and neuroimaging may help distinguish the cause. We compared the imaging characteristics of ischemic stroke caused by PFO (PFO-stroke) and AF (AF-stroke). METHODS We recruited 117 patients with PFO-stroke and 358 patients with AF-stroke after excluding other c...

BACKGROUND Clinical observations of migraine headache symptoms in patients with a patent foramen ovale (PFO), both of which conditions are highly prevalent, have raised the question of a possible pathophysiological relationship. We sought to evaluate the assumption of an association between migraine headaches and the presence of PFO by use of a large case-control study. METHODS AND RESULTS We...

STUDY OBJECTIVES The objectives of this study were (1) to assess the prevalence of patent foramen ovale (PFO) by means of contrast transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) in patients with obstructive sleep apnea, and (2) to determine the potential contribution of right to left interatrial shunting to systemic oxygen desaturation following the performance of Valsalva maneuver. DESIGN Performanc...

Objective: To compare the safety and efficacy of percutaneous closure of patent foramen ovale (PFO) with the Amplatzer PFO occluder (Amplatzer) or the PFO STAR device (STAR) in patients with presumed paradoxical embolism. Methods: Implantation characteristics, procedural complications, residual shunt, and recurrence of thromboembolic events were recorded prospectively in 100 consecutive patient...

Coronary artery embolism is a rare cause of acute myocardial infarction, attributed to approximately 10% all paradoxical embolisms. It condition that should be considered in patients who present with chest pain and have low overall risk coronary heart disease. A major the existence patent foramen ovale (PFO), which can shown on bubble transthoracic echocardiography. Here we describe case report...