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Updated: Sep 23, 2026

Echocardiographic Evaluation of Atrial Communications before Transcatheter Closure
Published on: February 8, 2022
Platypnea-orthodeoxia in a patient with ostium primum atrial septal defect with normal right heart pressures
Amar D Patel1, Wael S Abo-Auda, Rajasekhar Nekkanti
1Division of Cardiovascular Disease, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, USA.
Abstract:
We describe an adult patient with an ostium primum atrial septal defect (ASD) and a patent foramen ovale (PFO) with normal right heart pressures who presented with platypnea and orthodeoxia. A dilated aortic root encroaching into the region of the ASD and PFO, along with a tricuspid regurgitant jet moving into the left atrium through the ASD found on the transesophageal echocardiogram may have been responsible for orthodeoxia. Surgical closure of these defects resulted in the disappearance of both platypnea and orthodeoxia.
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