By undergoing a procedure to close a patent foramen ovale (PFO) – shown in a recently published study to be superior to medical therapy – the patients have significantly reduced her risk of having a recurrent stroke.

Richard Smalling, MD, PhD, an interventional cardiologist from McGovern Medical School at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth), was the principal investigator for the Houston site and was a member of the steering committee on the decade-long RESPECT national clinical trial.

Results of long term follow-up of the RESPECT trial were published in the New England Journal of Medicine and revealed that participants who had a PFO closure procedure were 45 percent less likely to have a recurrent stroke than participants who only received medical therapy.

In November 2016, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the use of a device to close PFOs. Abbott Vascular manufactures the device, called the AMPLATZER PFO Occluder. Since the FDA approval, Smalling has performed dozens of these procedures for patients who are at risk of recurrent stroke.