Originally published December 27 2005
Patients with holes in their hearts are not doomed to suffer a stroke, cardiologists say
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The Journal of the American College of Cardiology reports on a study performed by the Mayo Clinic that determined strokes were not an inevitable result for patients with a patent foramen ovale (PFO), a small hole between the two upper chambers of the heart.
Mayo Clinic researchers have found that -- contrary to current thinking by some in the medical community -- a patent foramen ovale (PFO), a small hole between the two upper chambers of the heart, does not predestine an individual to a stroke later in life.
Findings will appear online on Friday, Dec. 9 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
"Our study looked at the general population with PFO; if you detect PFO in someone who has already had a stroke, one cannot immediately assume that the PFO is causative."
After following patients in our study with small holes in the heart for five years, their risk for stroke was no different than those who did not have the hole."
"Most people don't know they have this -- it's usually a silent condition," says Dr. Meissner.
Physicians now send patients more often to have transesophageal echocardiograms -- heart scans via a probe inserted into the esophagus -- which are conducted to detect a variety of heart conditions.
The current practice of closing PFOs derives from many observational research studies demonstrating higher incidence of PFO in stroke patients, according to the Mayo Clinic researchers.
The methodologies for many of these studies were problematic, however, according to Dr. Meissner.
How Findings Apply to Patients with PFO Due to the lack of association between PFO and later stroke found in this study, the Mayo Clinic investigators indicate that closure surgery should not be reflexive.
"We now see that a hole in the heart leading to stroke is not borne out in our study, the largest transesophageal echocardiogram-based study of the general population," says Dr. Khandheria.
"Just because you have a hole, you don't automatically need to have it closed.
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