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It is one of two fetal cardiac shunts, the other being the ductus arteriosus (which allows blood that still escapes to the right ventricle to bypass the pulmonary circulation). Another similar adaptation in the fetus is the ductus venosus. In most individuals, the foramen ovale closes at birth. It later forms the fossa ovalis.
The fetal heart contains two upper atria and two lower ventricles. It also contains two additional structures, the foramen ovale and the ductus arteriosus, that function as shunts for oxygenated blood. [2] The function of these shunts is to bypass the lungs and maintain proper circulation to important fetal tissue.
It is most distinct above and at the sides of the fossa ovalis; below, it is deficient. A small slit-like valvular opening is occasionally found, at the upper margin of the fossa, leading upward beneath the limbus, into the left atrium; it is the remains of the fetal aperture the foramen ovale between the two atria.
A patent foramen ovale (PFO) is a remnant opening of the fetal foramen ovale, which often closes after a person's birth. This remnant opening is caused by the incomplete fusion of the septum primum and the septum secundum; in healthy hearts, this fusion form the fossa ovalis, a portion of the interatrial septum which corresponds to the location ...
In the fetus, there is an opening between the right and left atrium (the foramen ovale), and most of the blood flows from the right into the left atrium, thus bypassing pulmonary circulation. The majority of blood flow is into the left ventricle from where it is pumped through the aorta into the body.
Persistent fetal circulation is a condition caused by a failure in the systemic circulation and pulmonary circulation to convert from the antenatal circulation pattern to the "normal" pattern. Infants experience a high mean arterial pulmonary artery pressure and a high afterload at the right ventricle.
Before birth, the fetal circulation directs oxygen-rich blood returning from the placenta to mix with blood from the hepatic veins in the inferior vena cava. Streaming this blood across the atrial septum via the foramen ovale increases the oxygen content of blood in the left atrium.
A fetal heartbeat can be detected at around 17 to 20 weeks of gestation when the chambers of the heart have become sufficiently developed. [ 20 ] During childbirth , the parameter is part of cardiotocography , which is where the fetal heartbeat and uterine contractions are continuously recorded.