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Paradoxical embolism and a patent foramen ovale
J Kulpeksa1, B Jobson, R P Byrd
1Department of Internal Medicine, James H. Quillen College of Medicine, Johnson City, USA.
Tennessee Medicine : Journal of the Tennessee Medical Association
|May 2, 1998
Abstract:
Patients who sustain an unexplained stroke or peripheral ischemic event should be examined for paradoxical embolism via right-to-left shunting. The confirmation of a patent foramen ovale by echocardiography is simple and noninvasive, and should suggest the possibility of a right-sided embolic source. Unrecognized right-to-left shunting that allows paradoxical embolism may be more frequent than generally recognized.