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Congenital heart conditions

The 'headache' of assessing a link between PFO and migraine

The relationship between patent foramen ovale and migraine is a hotly debated issue. Conflicting data on the association or independence of these conditions have been reported by various study groups around the world. Now, a large-scale case–control study has shown no association between the two entities; however, there were a number of methodological flaws in this study and we are unlikely to see the end of the controversy in the near future.

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Figure 1: A personal view on how future studies of migraine and PFO should be conducted.

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Rigatelli, G. The 'headache' of assessing a link between PFO and migraine. Nat Rev Cardiol 7, 361–362 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrcardio.2010.73

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