Abstract
The valve of the foramen ovale of the heart changes at birth from a prenatal shunting device for the transseptal flow of systemic venous return to a postnatal active barrier to backflow of left atrial blood at higher pressure. To investigate the morphologic response to this functional change in the valve of the foramen ovale, we examined 200 hearts from embryos, fetuses and autopsy patients spanning over a mlllionfold range of heart weights (0.001 to 1,230 g). The relation of valve thickness to log heart weight was studied by a stepwise linear regression procedure that fitted the data to two linear regressions, one including observations made before birth and the other including observations made after birth. Analysis of variance tables demonstrated that the data are significantly better explained (p
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 90-94 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | The American Journal of Cardiology |
Volume | 47 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 1981 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine