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.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate cTCD for PFO screening comparing it to cTEE.


METHODS
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.


CONCLUSIONS
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.
Lange
Marcos Christiano
MC
Cerebrovascular Diseases, Neurology Division, Department of Internal Medicine, Hospital de Clínicas, Federal University of Paraná, Curitiba PR, Brazil. lange@ufpr.br
Zétola
Viviane Flumignan
VF
de Souza
Admar Moraes
AM
Piovesan
Elcio Juliato
EJ
Muzzio
Juliano André
JA
Germiniani
Francisco Manoel Branco
FM
Werneck
Lineu César
LC
D000328:Adult; D003287:Contrast Media; D017548:Echocardiography, Transesophageal; D005260:Female; D054092:Foramen Ovale, Patent / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D017585:Ultrasonography, Doppler, Transcranial
D003287:Contrast Media