Patent Foramen Ovale (PFO) | 合法醫療器材資訊網

2017年3月31日—Therearetwokindsofholesintheheart.Oneiscalledanatrialseptaldefect(​ASD),andtheotherisapatentforamenovale(PFO).Althoughboth ...

Adapted from "Holes in the Heart," Stroke Connection Magazine, January/February 2011

A hole in your heart would seem to be the very definition of a "problem." Yet more than a quarter of the population has one, and for most it causes no adverse health effects. In fact, the vast majority of those affected dont even know it.

There are two kinds of holes in the heart. One is called an atrial septal defect[1] (ASD), and the other is a patent foramen ovale (PFO). Although both are holes in the wall of tissue (septum) between the left and right upper chambers of the heart (atria), their causes are quite different. An ASD is a failure of the septal tissue to form between the atria, and as such it is considered a congenital heart defect, something that you are born with. Generally an ASD hole is larger than that of a PFO. The larger the hole, the more likely there are to be symptoms.

PFOs, on the other hand, can only occur after birth when the foramen ovale fails to clos...