The foramen ovale is an opening or shunt in the heart tissue allowing blood to flow from the right atrium to the left atrium during fetal development. Blood oxygenated at the placenta is shunted away from the pulmonic circulation via this structure as the lungs are collapsed and not functioning and ...

Aims Patent foramen ovale (PFO) has been implicated in the etiology of a number of different pathologies, including cryptogenic stroke, decompression sickness in divers, etc. It can act as a channel for paradoxical embolism. PFO is not an uncommon condition, with a probe-patency in 15–35% populatio...

The fossa ovalis forms an oval shaped depression in the wall of the interatrial septum. It is a remnant of the embryonic ostium secundum in the septum primum (the dividing membrane between right and left atrium) of the heart. Its morphology changes in certain disease conditions. Of note is the morph...