Worringly thick nuchal fold measurement at 13 wks, waiting for further details....feeling crap. Anyone been there?

[NinkyNonker]

Well as per title really, at our 13 wk scan for dc2 I was told that the nuchal fold measurement was 3.5cm which is the cut off for 'normal'. I had to talk to a midwife who will call tomorrow with the blood results which will give me the results of the combined screening, if the odds are high for Downs I have to decide whether to have an amnio, they could do it on Fri.

If it isn't Downs it could be a structural problem with the heart, which we won't know for a while but if odds don't indicate Downs I would need to see a fetal cardio specialist in 4 wks or so.

Equally it could be nothing. 3.5 is on the cusp and they struggled to get that measurement anyway so it could be wrong.

The little one was wriggling away and everything looked structurally fine according to the sonographer, including a very obvious and strong heart beat.

So now I feel a bit crap and not sure how worried to be really. Has anyone else had similar?

Sorry, 3.5mm, not cm!

I've not but if you go on the website for the Fetal Medicine Centre there is a web presentation that explains all the testing in detail and how most babies over the "normal" limits will be fine. May rovide you with some reassurance.

BTW at 13 weeks wouldn't it be a CVS rather than amnio?

My SIL had a similar measurement. Her bloods came back fine and then she had to wait until 24 weeks for the cardiac scan, which was also fine!

Mine was 4.9mm at 12 weeks - so high they didn't bother with the bloods. I had a CVS at 12+4 which came back clear and then had to wait until 20 weeks for heart echo/advanced abnormality scan, which was also clear (touch wood).
From what I've read, 3.5mm is borderline, so you may not even have to take any action after bloods come back. If they do come back as high risk, remember that these are not diagnostic tests, they only give a risk assessment. There are plenty of women on here who've had high nuchal scores and gone on to have healthy babies.
I'm 23 weeks now, so all of this was very recent for me and I completely sympathize with how stressful it all is. All I can say is that we were told that we had a 50/50 chance of downs etc, but (touch wood again) it's now looking quite positive.

Impossible I know, but try not to worry yourself sick and keep us posted

same thing happened to me, with the combination of my age (37) bloods and scan my chances of Downs were stated as 1 in 2. i had the aminio and all was fine but it was the worst 24 hrs of my life. It was handled very insesntively by the medical staff and were telling me I should have an abortion. I would have kept him anyway - disabled or not. I niw have a healthy 4 Yo son. I think they worry you unnecessarily

Thanks all, after a few hours of shock we're (well, I, DH was pragmatic throughout!) feeling much calmer about it...as you say, 3.5 is borderline so could go either way. If I came back as high odds I don't know if we would go for further tests or not. In one respect I know I am an awful worrier so may be better finding out for definite but on the other hand nothing would change if it came back positive, it would still be our baby anyway.

So now we'll just wait and see what the combined results say tomorrow and take it from there. I think it prob would be a CVS (had to look it up, haven't heard of it before), the midwife just said that or amnio. I think the cvs is lower risk isn't it?

It was just such a shock, had a relatively problem free preg with dd, and this one looked so healthy wriggling away, having a drink, crossing its legs etc I couldn't/can't believe there may be a problem!

I think the risk for CVS is marginally higher than amnio, but they are quite out of date, it depends on your consultant etc. If you do need or decide to have a diognostic test, I suggest going to the ante natal tests/choices board as that has lots of info and experience on the differences / pros and cons

Good idea, I didn't know it was there. I'll repost.

I know of 2 people irl with similar nuchal results to you and neither baby had downs. With my first, my bloods came back with a 1 in 65 chance of downs and therefore too late for nuchal. I was told "its likely your baby has downs". When in fact it was far more likely he didn't. Had an amnio and as 6 years ago, had to wait 2 weeks for results! My son doesn't have downs. I actually recall my 2nd son's nuchal was borderline and as I had a really good consultant performing the scan, he said he was confident, given all the levels, that baby was fine. He was. This was 4 years ago and your post triggered the memory. However, due to the consultants attitude, I genuinely did not feel unduly worried.

Sorry you are worried. A friend who is a Dr, says she feels desperately sorry for pg women now days. You are bombarded with info and in her opinion, it often causes needless worry.

xx

PS
I hope that the bloods will be reassuring and no need for amnio or cvs. Re amnio, which sounds very frightening in theory, it was painless and quick and I was told that amnio stats should be disregarded and you need to know the hospitals track record. I was told that the hospitals record was no miscarriage after amnio for 9 years and amnios were performed daily. Therefore the risk was miniscule.

xx

hi there
We have a section for Antenatal tests, so am going to move this there.
All best to you, OP and hope the wait's not too long.

MN Towers