Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2010 Oct;122(4):257-61.
doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0404.2009.01302.x. Epub 2009 Nov 23.

Follow-up of residual shunt after patent foramen ovale closure

F Orzan  1 , W Liboni, A Bonzano, F Molinari, M Ribezzo, N Rebaudengo, G Grippi, E Negri
Affiliations

Follow-up of residual shunt after patent foramen ovale closure

F Orzan et al. Acta Neurol Scand. 2010 Oct.

Abstract

Objectives: Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) is usually recommended in the evaluation of the patent foramen ovale (PFO). Our goal is to confirm the efficacy of contrast-enhanced transcranial Doppler (ce-TCD) in detecting residual significant right-to-left shunts (RLS) after PFO percutaneous closure.

Materials and methods: Sixty-eight patients with a previous transient ischemic attack, stroke and a large PFO were investigated for residual RLS after percutaneous closure.

Results: Assuming TEE as the gold standard, the sensitivity and negative predictive value of ce-TCD was 100%, whereas the specificity was 75.8% and the positive predictive value was 28%.

Conclusions: ce-TCD appears to be the preferable technique to identify subjects with significant residual shunts after percutaneous closure of a PFO. In follow-up, if ce-TCD is negative, no further examination may be necessary; whereas if ce-TCD shows a residual shunt, it is advisable to perform a TEE investigation.

PubMed Disclaimer

LinkOut - more resources