It was in 1984 this paper came from mayo clinic proceedings .
Hagen PT, Scholz DG, Edwards WD. Incidence and size of patent foramen ovale during the first 10 decades of life: an autopsy study of 965 normal hearts. Mayo Clin Proc. 1984;59:17-20.
When interventional cardiology was not even in infancy . Now it remains the only data base of nearly 100o hearts studied after autopsy .
After reading the article I got few surprises
- The mean incidence is 27.3 % of general population ( That is 27 crore people with PFO in India )
- In first three decades it goes up to 40 % .
- PFOs size increase with age due to stretch of inter atrial septum
- It measures 3.4mm in the first decade and it can grow up to 5.8 mm in later decades .
http://download.journals.elsevierhealth.com/pdfs/journals/0025-6196/PIIS0025619611632606.pdf
Mayo clinic continues to be pioneers in providing vital research about PFO
Following is another excellent review article on PFO and stroke
Dr.S.Venkatesan MD 
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