Persistent hypoxemia due to patent foramen ovale in a patient with adult respiratory distress syndrome.

This report describes a patient in the recovery phase of the adult respiratory distress syndrome in whom the persistence of severe hypoxemia was not corrected by a high fractional concentration of oxygen in the inspired gas and positive end-expiratory pressure. A right-to-left interatrial shunt was diagnosed by M-mode and cross-sectional echocardiography with saline injection, and the presence of a patent foramen ovale was confirmed at the time of cardiac surgery.