Stroke is the most debilitating cardiovascular event. It has a variety of causes that may be present simultaneously. In young or otherwise healthy people, the search for a patent foramen ovale (PFO) has become standard. In stroke of the elderly, atherosclerosis and atrial fibrillation are in the foreground but the PFO should not be ignored. The risk of a PFO-related stroke over time is controve...

An efficient method based in template wetting is applied for fabrication of ordered Poly(9,9-dioctylfluorene) (PFO) nanopillars with b-phase morphology. In this process, nanoporous alumina obtained by anodization process is used as template. PFO nanostructures are prepared under ambient conditions via infiltration of the polymeric solution into the pores of the alumina with an average pore diam...

Patent foramen ovale (PFO) occurs when the septum primum and secundum fail to fuse after birth. A quarter of adults have this defect, which is usually an incidental finding with no clinical repercussions. However, the presence of PFO has been associated with a range of clinical conditions such as cryptogenic stroke, migraine, platypnea-orthodeoxia syndrome, and decompression illness. Cryptogeni...

BACKGROUND The role of surgical closure of patent foramen ovale (PFO) for cerebral infarction (CI) or transient ischemic attack (TIA) resulting from paradoxical embolism is unclear, and its effect on recurrence is unknown. Our objective was to determine the outcome of surgical closure of PFO in patients with a prior ischemic neurological event, define the rate of CI or TIA recurrence after PFO ...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE We sought to estimate risk of recurrent stroke/TIA/death in the subgroup of the Patent Foramen Ovale in the Cryptogenic Stroke Study (PICSS) cohort with patent foramen ovale (PFO) and antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL) and to estimate risk of recurrent stroke/TIA/death in aPL-positive patients who have thickened left-side heart valves (VaT). PFO is associated with cryptoge...

INTRODUCTION Patent foramen ovale (PFO) is associated with the occurrence of cryptogenic strokes, transient neurological ischemic attacks (TIA) and migraine. Therefore despite the recent ambiguous results of prospective controlled trials, percutaneous closure of PFO is still performed in many centers. AIM To evaluate the safety and effectiveness of percutaneous PFO closure in the prevention o...

INTRODUCTION The natural history and therapeutic interventions for secondary prevention after a cerebrovascular event in patients with patent foramen ovale (PFO) are not yet established. This study aims to assess the safety and efficacy of percutaneous PFO closure in a population of patients with ischemic cerebrovascular disease of unknown etiology. METHODS This prospective observational stud...

BACKGROUND Stroke is often unexplained in younger adults, although it is often associated with a patent foramen ovale (PFO). The reason for the association is not fully explained, and mechanisms other than paradoxical embolism may be involved. Young stroke patients with PFO have more atrial vulnerability than those without PFO. It is plausible that stretching of the interatrial septum may disru...

The foramen ovale is an essential part of the fetal circulation, allowing right-to-left shunt of oxygenated blood derived from the umbilical vein to bypass the nonfunctional lungs in utero. It is formed by the septum primum and septum secundum. After birth, owing to an increase in the left atrial pressure and a decrease in the right atrial pressure, the septum primum is pushed against the thick...

A quick PubMed search reveals an abundance of editorials, reviews, and opinion pieces on the subject of patent foramen ovale (PFO) management, and this is now the fourth published article on this topic that has adapted William Shakespeare’s classic words from Hamlet to describe the conundrum that faces neurologists, cardiologists, and their patients.1–3 The degree to which this title has been o...