A 30-year old woman presented with neurological symptoms and a patent foramen ovale (PFO) that was closed with a Nit-Occlud® PFO. At the 6-month follow-up, the device was found in the aortic arch (Fig. 1A and B) and all efforts to retrieve it percutaneously were unsuccessful. Surgical intervention was indicated, the PFO directly closed (Fig. 1C) and the device removed under hypothermic circulat...

We describe and demonstrate a new oscillator topology, the parametric feedback oscillator (PFO). The PFO paradigm is applicable to a wide variety of nanoscale devices and opens the possibility of new classes of oscillators employing innovative frequency-determining elements, such as nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS), facilitating integration with circuitry and system-size reduction. We show ...

A patent foramen ovale (PFO) has been associated with medical conditions such as cryptogenic stroke, migraine with aura, and decompression illness. Whether closure of the PFO has clinical benefit has been suggested from registry studies, but not yet confirmed in multiple randomized trials. Methods of diagnosis of a PFO and a summary of the current evidence for treatment is presented and discuss...

This manuscript will focus on a rare complication: shunting through a patent foramen ovale (PFO) as a long term complication of right sided pneumonectomy or bilobectomy. Three patients who were diagnosed with shunting through a patent foramen ovale following lung resection are described. In these patients right ventricular compression by the elevated right hemidiaphragm was the cause of shuntin...

OBJECTIVES The purpose of the study was to assess the mechanism responsible for increased stroke risk in patients with atrial septal aneurysm (SA) and patent foramen ovale (PFO), and to determine the efficacy of medical therapy for preventing stroke recurrence or death. BACKGROUND Atrial septal aneurysm and PFO are associated with stroke. However, the mechanism for this association is undefin...

OBJECTIVE To report our data on selected patients with previous paradoxical embolism who underwent transcatheter patent foramen ovale (PFO) closure. METHODS Between July 2001 and July 2007, percutaneous PFO closure was performed on 128 patients (65 women, mean age: 46 +/- 12.8 years). Patent foramen ovale closure was recommended for secondary prevention in patients with previous transient isc...

Patent foramen ovale (PFO) closure is the thing to do these days in the interventional laboratory. Closures are done for strokes, migraine headaches, and postural cyanosis, and for divers who are at risk for decompression sickness. Atrial septal defect closures are also done in the interventional laboratory, but these are known to reduce the significant left-to-right intracardiac shunt that eve...

Dyspnea accounts for more than one-fourth of the hospital admissions from Emergency Department. Chronic conditions such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, Congestive Heart Failure, and Asthma are being common etiologies. Less common etiologies include conditions such as valvular heart disease, pulmonary embolism, and right-to-left shunt (RLS) from patent foramen ovale (PFO). PFO is prese...

A patent foramen ovale (PFO) is a frequent remnant of embryological development with clinical importance in thromboembolism, paradoxical embolism, stroke, platypnea-orthodeoxia, decompression sickness, and migraine headache. The proposed mechanisms of stroke with PFO include paradoxical embolization, in situ thrombosis within the canal of the PFO, associated atrial arrhythmias, and concomitant ...

Migraine often co-occurs with patent foramen ovale (PFO), and some people have suggested surgical closure as an efficient treatment for migraine. Prospective studies, however, do not report radical effect of PFO surgery on migraine. Here, we examined the hypothesis that PFO and migraine may cooccur as two independent manifestations of lateralization defect during embryonic development. We measu...