title: Transcranial Doppler for patent foramen ovale screening: is there a good correlation with transesophageal echocardiography?
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Cerebrovascular Diseases, Neurology Division, Department of Internal Medicine, Hospital de Clínicas, Federal University of Paraná, Curitiba PR, Brazil. lange@ufpr.br
authors.forename: Marcos Christiano
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Lange
authors.forename: Viviane Flumignan
authors.initials: VF
authors.lastname: Zétola
authors.forename: Admar Moraes
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: de Souza
authors.forename: Elcio Juliato
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Piovesan
authors.forename: Juliano André
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Muzzio
authors.forename: Francisco Manoel Branco
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Germiniani
authors.forename: Lineu César
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Werneck
mesh_terms: 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
chemical_list: D003287:Contrast Media