Talk:Paradoxical embolism

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[edit] Misleading text

I don't have time to do this in full right now - but this article is (fair enough, it's only supposed to be a stub) certainly in need of revision, since it could be quite misleading (at least to a layman) from a medical point of view.

What should change:

- A paradoxical embolism simply describes a scenario in which an embolus crosses over from the right side of the heart to the left atrium, and then impacts somewhere in the systemic circulation. While it can wind up in the carotid (and beyond), it's not specifically stroke or CVA related.

- I've removed the line "Because of the risk of stroke from paradoxical embolism, it is usually recommended that even small atrial septal defects be repaired." This is highly misleading, since it seems to forget that should an embolus *not* cross over to the left side, it will invariably enter the main pulmonary artery, and if it's not very small, cause catastrophic (and often instantly fatal, in spite of any emergency treatment) PE.

Similarly "The lungs act as a filter to prevent the clots from entering the arterial circulation" again seems to suggest that pulmonary embolism is somehow a 'normal' process, as opposed to a medical emergency - and one of the leading causes of sudden death in all age groups.