Tricuspid Regurgitation & CVS worries!

[Leo79]

Hi There,
I just wanted to get some guidance/reassurance about my current situation. I recently had my Nuchal Scan that showed I had a 1:120 chance of Downs due to the presence of Tricuspid Regurgitation and also from my blood results. All other markers seemed fine, nasal bone was present, Reverse Flow in Ducus Venosus was positive (I think this is good?) and the Nuchal measurement was 1.90mm which I believe is also good.

I know the risk is minimal, 1:120 is a 0.8% chance we will have a baby with Downs but I am worried about what other heart defects our baby may have and think that the CVS test may go some way to putting our minds at ease.

What I am worried about or would like to hear some other opinions of is what are the chances that the Tricuspid Regurgitation problem will rectify itself? has anyone had any experience of this? and if we do go for the CVS test with the risk of miscarriage, how long does the risk last for afterwards? will it be a few days? weeks? I can't find any info on this to reassure myself.

Would appreciate anyones thoughts or advice on this as I am starting to get stressed about the whole thing.
Thanks
Leo79

Hi,

Sorry, I don't know anything much about TR as such.

As for the CVS, I had a similar probability of Down's with my current pregnancy, based on the triple serum test (the sonographer couldn't get a clear nuchal reading), and we did have a CVS (which went well except for a damp eye from me, and gave us a reassuring all-clear and told us what sex the baby is - drastic way to find out!)

Off the top of my head, I think I was told to avoid exertion (such as lifting toddler) for 36 hours or 48 hours (luckily it was just before a bank holiday weekend so DP could help), but I read on the web 72 hours, and someone else on MN kindly advised me to give it three or four days if pos.

I also read somewhere (I think it was on the homepage of a prominent tip-top London specialist whose name I have forgotten, but someone will prob come and say :)) that there is no risk after five days. Or, put another way, the risk is so minimal that it's impossible to distinguish from the slight chance that you'd have had an MC anyway.

I was very lucky that the specialist who did my CVS was a 'good' one - in fact, she'd trained with aforementioned tip-top London bloke! - which made the risk much lower. I think that tipped the do-we-or-don't-we balance as I decided the risk was almost zilch.

Is it possible to find out the stats for your hospital? When I went for the procedure, they told me that they had to tell me the nationwide stats but that this hospital's stats were much better. They gave me information to read on the stats and the recovery period just before the procedure, but obviously you need the information well before 15 mins before the procedure!

Also, I found that most people were very nice about it but one or two were judgemental and made snide remarks. I think there is a widespread assumption that people who choose an invasive test will certainly choose a termination if the baby does have Down's. And some people will judge parents negatively for that. While that may have been true for us (to be honest, my partner and I didn't agree about what we would do in that case), it also meant that the test was overwhelmingly likely to give reassurance to a jittery DP. And if we did find that we were expecting a child with special needs, it would give us much longer to prepare ourselves. I found that was a good line to use with people whom I suspected were silently tut-tutting me (and it was true! :))

I hope someone comes along to give you better information.

And good luck with whatever you decide :)

Hi Leo79,

Sorry to hear your going through this. I had the CVS done after a 1:6 result. The result was such a shock, I went ahead with the CVS in a bit of a daze convinced there must be something very wrong and not really weighing up the miscarriage risks.

Thankfully, the result came back the next day fine, and the subsequent heart scans have shown no problems, now 23+2.

I consider myself pretty tough & northern and usually subscribe to the grit your teeth and get on with it school of coping but I found the CVS procedure pretty painful & upsetting. I tried very hard not to cry and managed it, but then the lovely doc told me he would have to do it again as the sample wasn't enough and my bottom lip went, as did my DH's, poor doctor.

I never felt judged, although I didn't tell friends & family till afterwards, but everyone at the hospital was wonderful and supportive.

I really hope I don't have to it with future pregnancies. DH, said never again next time we'll take what we are given, after the procedure, but now he's calmed down he thinks 1:100 would be a reasonable cut off for us personally, which I'm happy with. I don't regret doing it this time, I would have been a basket case of worry by now if we hadn't.

In your case, I'm not sure what the CVS will tell you about the Tricuspid Regurgitation, as I understand it, it will only tell you about the presence or not of Downs and other chromosome related conditions. As a result of our high result we had 2 very detailed heart scans, one at 16 weeks and one at 20 weeks, which were just like a normal scan so much less invasive and risky than CVS. If its the TR your concerned about then I would talk to your midwife about heart scans & CVS and try to get some advise on which is best for you.

CVS is a very personal choice and a horrible decision to have to make. Remember 0.8% is a very small risk, you wouldn't bet on a horse with those odds, chances are very soon you'll have a beautiful baby and all this will be forgotten.

Best of luck.

p.s. don't pay too much attention to my painful CVS, I looked at lots of thread on here beforehand and most people seem to have had a fairly painfree experience, I'm clearly not as tough as I thought.