Transcranial Doppler for patent foramen ovale screening: is there a good correlation with transesophageal echocardiography?

Right-to-left shunt (RLS) can be identified by contrast-enhanced transcranial Doppler (cTCD) in patent foramen ovale (PFO) patients. AIM: To evaluate cTCD for PFO screening comparing it to cTEE. METHOD: 45 previous cTCD performed for PFO diagnosis and correlated its findings with cTEE. Patients were submitted to a cTCD standardized technique and were divided in two groups according to RLS: Group 1, patients with a positive RLS and Group 2 when RLS was negative. RESULTS: 29 (65%) patients were included in group 1 and 16 (35%) in group 2. PFO confirmation by cTEE was performed in 28 (62%) patients. cTCD had a 92.85% sensitivity, 82.35% specificity, 89.65% positive predictive value and 87.5% negative predictive value when compared to cTEE for PFO diagnosis. CONCLUSION: Standardized technique cTCD allows for RLS visualization in PFO patients with a good correlation with cTEE and can be used as a screening test before cTEE.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Lange,Marcos Christiano, Zétola,Viviane Flumignan, Souza,Admar Moraes de, Piovesan,Élcio Juliato, Muzzio,Juliano André, Germiniani,Francisco Manoel Branco, Werneck,Lineu César
Format:	Digital revista
Language:	English
Published:	Academia Brasileira de Neurologia - ABNEURO 2008
Online Access:	http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0004-282X2008000600001
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