= Interventricular foramina
{disambiguate=neuroanatomy}
{wiki}
= Interventricular foramen
{synonym}
= Interventricular foramina
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The \b[interventricular foramina] are the paired openings through which the <lateral ventricles> communicate with the <third ventricle>. Each opening connects its own side's <lateral ventricle> to the shared midline cavity. This arrangement provides a route for <cerebrospinal fluid> to reach the rest of the <ventricular system>.<Lateral Ventricles in MeSH>[Definition, each lateral cavity communicating with the third ventricle]{ref}
Both sides reach the shared <third ventricle>, which joins the <fourth ventricle> through the <cerebral aqueduct>.
Measurements add a temporal picture to this connection map. In a 1991 study, <phase-contrast magnetic resonance imaging> encoded the direction of <cerebrospinal fluid> movement across the <cardiac cycle>. The ventricular measurements contained systolic and diastolic flow components, with essentially simultaneous timing at the interventricular opening and <cerebral aqueduct>. Anatomical continuity and measured pulsatile transport describe complementary features of the same pathway.<Normal flow patterns of intracranial and spinal cerebrospinal fluid defined with phase-contrast cine MR imaging by D. R. Enzmann and others>[abstract, flow encoding and timing at ventricular passages]{ref}
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