Echogenic bowel. Please come and share your experiences.....

[RightUpMyRue]

Had the 20 week scan today. Everything looked good, baby is moving about loads and his growth is between the 50th and 75th centiles. However, his bowel appears to have an echogenic patch.

The sonographer has reassured me that this doesn't mean there is something wrong with the baby and in fact most of the echogenic bowels they find turn out to be nothing more serious than the baby having swallowed some blood earlier in the PG or that I have had an infection, like toxoplasmosis or parvovirus, and it's possibly, but not definitely, passed through the placenta to the baby.

Having come home and googled it appears to be a soft marker for cystic fibrosis and downs syndrome among other things. My nuchal and blood results at 13 weeks were very low for down's though; 1in 14000.

We're waiting for a call from the fetal medicine unit so we can go for further tests. I'm not panicking and thinking it's all gone wrong, the internet, for once, has actually been quite reassuring and because everything else looks good and healthy I'm trying to stay positive.

[tutu100]

My BIL and SIL's baby had an echogenic bowel. They underwent blood tests to see if they were CF carriers (BIL was which lead to DP being tested, but SIL wasn't). The echogenic bowel turned out to be nothing in the end. SIL had a couple of extra scans just to keep a check on the baby.

I hope you get some answers quickly and that it is good news.

[SoupDragon]

DD had this - as you said it was swallowed blood. I had a long & detailed scan where they looked at everything and concluded there was nothing to worry about.

[RightUpMyRue]

Thank you tutu. This is what I've gathered, from reading on the net, happens more often than not and is what I'm hoping will happen for us; blood tests for CF, maybe a couple more scans and all with normal results. Fingers crossed!

[RightUpMyRue]

Thank you too Soup. I certainly haven't noticed any bleeding but I suppose that doesn't necessarily mean there hasn't been a little bleed that just hasn't made it out of the cervix. Did you have any bleeding?

[SoupDragon]

I don't remember any bleeding either. But it was 7 years ago now :)

[RightUpMyRue]

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[RightUpMyRue]

bumping

[MaisieBean]

Hi Right, when I went for my 20 week scan with DD they discovered an echogenic bowel. When we saw a consultant he saud that whilst it could indicate CF it was no longer considered to be an accurate marker for CF. My DH and I both had genetic testing for CF which came back clear but apparently they can only test for 80%of CF genes anyway. I had had some early bleeding so that was all a possibility. Throughout my pg I had regular growth scans.

Anyway, in June last year my DD was born absolutely fine with no problems.

It can be so worrying to hear that they've picked up a potential problem can't it? I hope you have been offered plenty of support at the hospital.

[RightUpMyRue]

Thank you Maisie. It's very reassuring to hear about all these babies who had echogenic bowels at 20 weeks but who have no problems whatsoever.

I'm still waiting for a call from the FMU but have rung my midwife and asked her to chase them up.

I'm still feeling positive and am assuming all is well but would like to have these further scans and tests sooner rather than later so I can put it from my mind.

[MaisieBean]

I'm glad you're managing to stay positive Right. I'm afraid I didn't and the stress and worry kind of ruined the rest of my pregnancy. You might find that in future scans they also look to see if the bowel is dilated which gives a better idea of whether it is CF. I wholeheartedly wish you a happy and healthy pregnancy and bundle of joy though.

[RightUpMyRue]

Just to update, in case anyone is interested or has come by this thread after having googled for echogenic bowel.

We saw the consultant today. He found a very small section of echogenic bowel, so small he said if it had been him doing the initial scan he's not sure he would have bothered sending us for further testing(which was quite reassuring to hear) but seeing as we were there we might as well have the blood tests. So we both had bloods taken, DP for CF carrier testing and me for CF carrier testing and an infection screen for common infections which can cross the placenta. An acronym for those is TORCH which stands for Toxoplasmosis, Ruebella, Cytomeglavirus and Herpes.

Results should be back in 2 weeks and we'll be scanned again at 28 weeks when, hopefully, whatever is making the bowel echogenic will have gone.

So we're pleased with what was said today but until the infection screen comes back clear and the bowel is back to normal I can't feel 100% OK.

I will update more when I know more.

Thanks again all for sharing with me.