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Updated: Jul 18, 2026

Closure of a Patent Foramen Ovale (PFO): An Intervention Sequence
Published on: December 23, 2022
Patent foramen ovale and migraine
M C Post1, J G L M Luermans, H W M Plokker
1Department of Cardiology, St. Antonius Hospital, Nieuwegein, the Netherlands, and University Hospital Gasthuisberg, Leuven, Belgium. m.post@antonius.net
Abstract:
Migraine is a common neurological disorder with a great impact on the quality of life and social activities. The patent foramen ovale (PFO) is an intra-atrial right-to-left shunt with a prevalence of 25% in the general population. An increased prevalence is found in patients with migraine, especially in migraine with aura. Percutaneous PFO closure might decrease the prevalence of migraine. However, most of these observational studies were retrospective without a randomized design and the results need to be interpreted with caution. In this review we describe the association between PFO and migraine and the different pathophysiological hypotheses, which have been proposed to explain this relationship.
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