Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography
Analysis of fossa ovalis membrane velocities by transesophageal Doppler tissue echocardiography: A novel approach to functional assessment of patent foramen ovale
Section snippets
Patient population
A total of 107 consecutive patients with in sinus rhythm who underwent TEE for various indications were prospectively studied. Patients with atrial septal defects and left-to-right shunting were excluded. Indications for TEE were: detection of cardiac source of embolism (n = 39); evaluation of valvular disease (n = 33); suggested endocarditis (n = 25); evaluation of aortic disease (n = 5); evaluation of intracardiac masses (n = 2); and evaluation of left ventricular (LV) function as a result of
Results
TEE was successfully completed in all 107 patients without premature interruptions, and no complications occurred. Patient's characteristics and TEE results are summarized in Table 1. In 21 of 107 (19.6%) patients PFO was detected (group 1). The remaining 86 patients served as a control group (group 2).
Discussion
To our knowledge, this is the first study to assess physiologic FOM dynamics using DTE. Our results demonstrate that evaluation of FOM dynamics using DTE is feasible. Pulsed wave DTE interrogation is particularly useful for quantitation of FOM dynamics. Besides a reproducible quadrophasic FOM motion pattern, which was observed in all patients, characteristic changes were found in patients with PFO. In addition, our study presents the normal values of FOM motion in patients with and without PFO,
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Dr Eggebrecht is recipient of a research grant from the University Duisburg-Essen (IFORES 10+2).