A patent foramen ovale or PFO is a defect in the wall between the two upper chambers of the heart. This defect is actually an incomplete closure of the atrial wall that results ... in either direction ...

However, in as many as one in four people, there is a connection left over from fetal development known as a patent foramen ovale. Various conditions can affect the right atrium. These may be ...

Patent foramen ovale (PFO) is an interatrial communication at the level of oval fossa caused by the incomplete or missed fusion of the septum primum and septum secundum after birth. PFO has a ...

Box 1 summarizes the current arguments favoring the embolic hypothesis. Metabolic right-to-left shunting has been proposed as an alternative trigger of migraine attacks. Serotonin, usually ...

There are often no noticeable symptoms, but some patients may only have a heart murmur, a "swishing noise" doctors can hear when using a stethoscope, caused by the reversed blood flow.

Among adults ages 18-49 (median age of 41 years) who were born with a hole in the upper chambers of their heart known as patent foramen ovale (PFO), strokes of unknown cause were more strongly ...