Amnesia Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Amnesia, including details on memory loss, causes, treatment, brain injury,.

A mystery featuring right-to-left shunting despite normal intracardiac pressure.

Zanchetta M, Rigatelli G, Ho SY

Department of Cardiovascular Disease, Cittadella General Hospital, Padua, Italy. emodinacit@ulss15.pd.it

The cause of right-to-left atrial shunting despite normal intracardiac pressures and normal or near-normal pulmonary function through a patent foramen ovale has still not been completely clarified. It is probably responsible for several linked diseases, such as paradoxical embolism, platypnea-orthodeoxia syndrome, migraine with aura, transient global amnesia, and decompression sickness in sport divers. Despite modern diagnostic methods, the underlying anatomophysiologic and pathogenic mechanisms of right-to-left atrial shunting without abnormal intracardiac pressures remain a matter of debate and controversy. Holistically speaking, a return to a direct study of embryology, gross anatomy, and physiology may help us elucidate the real mechanism of this paradoxical shunting.

Published 15 August 2005 in Chest, 128(2): 998-1002.
Full-text of this article is available online (may require subscription).

© 2004-2008 Amnesia Research Today. All Rights Reserved.