N. Mercho et al., RIGHT-TO-LEFT INTERATRIAL SHUNT CAUSING PLATYPNEA AFTER PNEUMONECTOMY- A RECENT EXPERIENCE AND DIAGNOSTIC-VALUE OF DYNAMIC MAGNETIC-RESONANCE-IMAGING, Chest, 105(3), 1994, pp. 931-933
Shortness of breath after pneumonectomy is a common finding that has m
ultiple causes. We report the cases of two patients with shortness of
breath on assuming an upright posture (platypnea) that followed pneumo
nectomy; these individuals developed right-to-left shunt across a pate
nt foramen ovale (PFO) with normal right-sided intracardiac pressures.
Both contrast echocardiography and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI),
including a recently introduced dynamic ultrafast imaging technique, p
roved helpful in diagnosing this condition noninvasively.