Hyperechogenic bowel

[Winterwoollies]

Hi there,

At my anomaly scan my baby was discovered to have a hyperechogenic bowel. A lot of his bowel was affected.

They whizzed me back in to see the consultant who confirmed most of his bowel was affected, it’s all as bright as bone and so I’ve been referred to a fetal medicine unit.

I’ve already had the CF tests and I’m not a carrier (I know it only checks at 95% accuracy and doesn’t check for mutations) and I’ve also come back clear for Toxo and CMV.

I’m a little bit anxious as this has been quite an emotionally traumatic pregnancy and now I’m settling into it, things seem to be going a bit wrong.

Can anyone tell me what tests will likely be carried out at the fetal medicine unit? What likely causes it? And anyone with experience of it could you tell me your journey, good or bad? I’m not flapping and panicky just yet. My midwife is lovely but being vague about things.

It’s all moving fast so I haven’t had an info from the doctors, they’re acting quickly for me so there hasn’t been time.

Thank you in advance.

I also posted this in antenatal testing but didn’t get any messages.

[Anaesthetist83]

How stressful. This is a useful paper. I don’t know how many weeks you are? Assuming around 20 if anomaly scan, but if you happen to have had this earlier, it seems the significance of this finding is much less. Even in 2nd trimester, 60% of babies are born without any problems. Hopefully this article can give you an idea of some possibilities and what to expect to happen now.

[Anaesthetist83]

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3279148/

[Winterwoollies]

Thank you. I’ll have a read. I’m 22 weeks now.