Nuchal scan results good but nasal bone absent. Should I worry?

[thehuntress]

I posted this on the antenatal tests topic, but thought I would post here too. I had my nuchal scan at the Fetal Medicine Centre today. Bloods and NT were good, but they couldn't see the nasal bone. That gave me a risk of 1:692 versus a risk of 1:3000ish if nasal bone was present.

They told me that since I'm early (11w5d) that I should come back for another scan in a week as sometimes the nasal bone hasn't developed at this point.

I know my odds are good for my age (36) but I am still worrying. Has anyone else had a similar result, and had the nasal bone show up on later scans?

Also, I know that 75% of DS babies don't have nasal bones. Could the absence of a nasal bone mean anything else other than Downs?

[Vallmo]

This happened to my friend. They couldn't detect the nasal bone at the 12 week scan and they couldn't even detect it at her 20 weeks scan but she ended up giving birth to a perfectly normal and healthy baby girl (with a nose!) it was just that her nose was very small and difficult to detect on the scan.

Try and not worry too much (I know it's difficult) and hopefully they are able to detect the nasal bone at your next scan, which will give you some peace of mind. Your risk factor is still quite low but I don't know if the absence of a nasal bone can mean anything other than Downs apart from baby having a small nose or the sonographer being unable to detect it (due to human error?).

All the best!

[thehuntress]

Thanks so much Vallmo. That does put my mind a rest a bit