Tallarico Demetrio, Chiavari Pier Andrea, Mollo Pasquale, Campolongo Giuseppe, Greco Cesare, Gaudio Carlo
II Division of Cardiology, Department of the Heart and Great Vessels, University La Sapienza, Via R. Zandonai 86, 00194 Rome, Italy.
Echocardiography. 2006 Oct;23(9):790-2. doi: 10.1111/j.1540-8175.2006.00313.x.
Percutaneous device closure of patent foramen ovale (PFO) has become an effective and safe alternative to medical or surgery treatment. Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE), as commonly used to guide this procedure, has the limitation to require general anesthesia. Recently, intracardiac echocardiography (ICE) with AcuNav probe was used to guide percutaneous PFO closure. We report a 42 year-old man with two previous cryptogenetic strokes in whom both diagnosis and guidance of PFO closure were performed by means of TEE using the AcuNav catheter introduced through nasal way (TEENW). This technique, that does not require general anesthesia, provided adequate and complete view of the Amplatzer procedure. TEENW might offer a feasible and equivalent echocardiographic alternative either to standard TEE or ICE as a guide to percutaneous PFO closure.
