EDITORIAL

How should we assess patent foramen ovale?

C Seiler

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Professor Christian Seiler
Department of Cardiology, University Hospital, CH-3010 Bern, Switzerland; christian.seiler.cardio@insel.ch

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Patent foramen ovale is being increasingly linked to a number of pathological conditions, most recently the prevalent disorder of migraine with aura. Many experts now no longer regard PFO as a harmless pimple but more a peril to health and even longevity

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Abbreviations: PFO, patent foramen ovale; TOE, transoesophageal echocardiography; TTE, transthoracic echocardiography

Keywords: patent foramen ovale; stroke; diving; migraine

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

In 1877, Cohnheim first indicated a causal relation between patent foramen ovale (PFO) and relevant sickness when analysing the case of a young woman with a stroke.¹ Since then, PFO has been recognised as a potential conduit for paradoxical embolism of thrombus, fat, air, or "things" as harmless as desaturated blood leading to various ailments, such as cerebral ischaemia,² transient global amnesia, decompression illness in divers,³ refractory hypoxemia in the presence of right ventricular infarction or severe pulmonary disease, and the rare platypnoea–orthodeoxia syndrome. PFO has even been recently linked to the prevalent disorder of migraine with aura,^4,5 and now many experts no longer regard it as a harmless pimple but as a peril to health and even longevity. Thus, the drastic statement can be envisaged that any hole, maybe except for valvar gaps and ventricular or coronary lumens, should be closed as soon as it is detected. Aside from . . . [Full text of this article]

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