Right to left shunt, with severe hypoxemia, at the atrial level in a patient with hemodynamically important right ventricular infarction.

This report describes a patient with a massive right ventricular infarction, complicated by severe hypoxemia. Contrast echocardiography demonstrated a right to left shunt through a previously asymptomatic atrial septal defect. This phenomenon should be considered as a possible cause of hypoxemia in the presence of right ventricular infarction.