'Reverse Flow in Ductus Venosus' - 12 week scan at FMC

[Toppy]

I am posting this in the hope that someone may have been in a similar position and can help me understand the implications of my 12 week scan - apologies for the long post.

I have just been for a 12 week scan at the Foetal Medicine Centre where one of the markers they check is the Ductus Venosus flow. My baby's flow is reverse flow. This can be an indicator of Downs. We were told that 80% of Downs babies have this condition bu that 3% of 'chromosomally normal' babies also have reverse flow. Once combined with my age, blood results or other markers (nuchal fold, nasal bone) we were given a very low risk of Downs, Edwards and Patau.

DH is very happy with these results but I can't stop worrying about what this reverse flow means outside of the context of the Nuchal scan. The sonographer said we could do nothing more than wait for the 20 week scan and focused on my low chromosomal defect risk.

Now I am home I am worried about what might await us at the 20 week scan as reverse flow can be indicative of heart defects. This has just caused the most ENORMOUS row between me and DH. He can only see the facts: in the context of the 12 week scan this anomaly has been cancelled out to by other good indicators to give an overall low risk whereas I, worrier that I am, can only think about why the anomaly is there at all.

I know there is nothing I can do but wait for the 20 week scan and google (bad bad idea) but I was hoping someone else further on down the line might have had this experience that they could share.

arbrighton
I don't see why you have a problem with it. This is the most meaningful discussion there is on the subject and I don't see why we should cleate multiple threads on the very same thing. I was glad to have found it all in one place. If it's a violation of any rule of the forum, please refer me to it.

Hello I am also facing the same issue, in my 12 week nt scan, it was written "ductus venosus: absent a wave" .Also my uterine artery PI value is high( 1.8 and 2.4) .Beside these two, rest other things like nt, nose bone and double marker screening is normal.Doctor prescribed me ecosprin and asked me to come for doppler ultrasound after 10 days.
Although she said nothing to worry much but I am scared as hell.
I know this thread is old but couldn't find any reassuring post anywhere else.
Really need support from other lovely moms.

Hi,
I know this is a very old post but I just want to say thanks to everyone for the comments posted and letting us know the outcome. I feel a bit better. Worries will never go away until my 16 weeks scan proves otherwise, but I feel like a light in the end. I have also loved this post was commented for all around the world, as I m from Spain. Here the reverse DV is considered as factor to calculate the Down syndrome so even though I don’t have any other markers I am currently waiting for my genetic blood results to see if the baby has Ds. I will definitely let you all know how things are with me in the end. Best luck to everyone reading.
Ana

Hi all iam facing same situation dv reverse a wave that is abnormal situation? Please help me iam really worried
Nt is 1.7, 1.6(dicorionic twins )
Nasal born seen and don't see other abnormalities

This post helped me a lot back in week 12, when we were told about the the Ductus Venousus - reverse A wave. It's been quite a journey, and I want to share my experience. I'm the DH to the mother of a super healthy 7 pound boy, born at week 39.

First of all, if you were told about this finding, and the nuchal translucency is within range, you have absolutely nothing to worry about in 95%-99% of cases. Ductus Venousus by itself does not diagnose anything, you can read about it here:
obgyn.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1046/j.1469-0705.2001.00387.x

And here:
fetalmedicine.com/synced/fmf/2010_25.pdf

In addition to the DV reverse A wave, my son had a brain cyst (Choroid Plexus Cyst), which happens in 2% of pregnancies. Cysts and DV reverse waves, don't diagnose anything, the expected risk for trisomies for my son based on NT + Morphology + Serum markers was 1 in 3,000.

Still our doctor was worried about this two findings, so my wife had the cell free dna testing, to rule out trisomies (Harmony being he best available test: harmonytest.com/en/expecting-parents.html) Obviously, we were super anxious, 10 days later results came in negative for trisomies.

At week 18, we did a Fetal Echocardiography, which showed a healthy and structurally sound heart.

At week 25, another ultrasound showed a calcification in the brain. My wife had a TORCH analysis which showed citomegalovirus IGM negative, and IGC positive. IGC positive means a past infection, in my wife's case se had varicella-zosteras a kid. Still doctor performed an amniocentesis, which came back clean and negative for CMV.

At week 34, the brain calcification was gone.

Finally at week 38.7 the cerebroplacental ratio went below the 5th percentile, so C-Section was scheduled and perfomed two day later.

My son passed all the screenings, looks super healthy, he's active, super-aware, he's a clver baby, and in 16 days he's gained 1.5 pounds.

I've learned two things, from this journey. If your doctor is super thorough and experienced, she's going to come up with a "finding" that will inevitably worry you. DONT. Don't worry until you have a confirmatory diagnosis, trust the process. Findings are clues, which mean nothing, unless there's a diagnosis.

Finally, the reverse wave in DV, means nothing, unless it comes together with other serious risk markers.

Hi Ana,
What was the result after 16 weeks

@Toppy I just had a random thought to check in on this thread (in the midst of of lockdown relentlessness had been chatting to a friend about the long forgotten stress of potential issues in pregnancy), I’m amazed to see this post was still active only a year or so ago & that it’s helped people in the midst of the worry we were going through!

Hope all good with you, should you still be here - I’ve been here on and off with a far less identifying username; I wonder if you still are!? Hello if so and to anyone else who stumbles across this random old 12 thread I hope it helps :)

I am aware this is a 12 year old thread but thank you all who shared their stories and happy outcomes. It has helped me today. I had my 12 week scan at FMC today, I was not worried about it as got my harmony test results a few days ago and I was very low risk. 1/10000. Today all was going well except they found the reverse ductus venoses. With my age of 41 it brings my risk to 1/58. I am told the harmony test trumps the scan risk but I can’t help but worry About it and potential heart issues. We have a 16 week booked but my anxiety is pretty high. It’s a hard wait.

This thread is such a reliever, even I got reverse a wave in my 12 week scan rest all parameters were way within the normal limits , waiting till 20 weeks is very difficult but get a lot of hopes and positivity from this thread..Hoping and praying for the best..

This thread is still the only source of info on this topic. I’m sort of relieved after reading your outcomes but obviously anxious about everything being okay for me. I had a normal NT, nasal bone and double markers, waiting for my NIPT results. But they found reverse a wave after which my OB ordered I get a second scan from fetal medicine unit, I got it after 4 hours of the first scan and everything was normal. I’m happy but also super confused on what just happened, no one at the hospital gave any detailed answers, obviously. I have the next appointment after my NIPT results come, just waiting to see when I get the scan or fetal echo.

@SleepEatPoopRepeat hope everything turned out well for you. What did they check at the 16 week scan? Was it a fetal echo?

@bash happy to say that for us, we had a very healthy little girl who is now 20 months and is a little ball of non stop energy.

At our 16 month scan they checked the flow again of the heart and it was still showing the reverse ductous A. We were told that it can fix itself as they grow so we then had to wait til 20 week scan. At 20 week scan it had improved slightly but still showed slightly so they sent us to see a heart specialist who checked out baby at around 22 weeks (I think) who said babies heart was absolutely fine. It is a very worrying time but what I read (and I did a lot of research) that without any other markers then it’s just something that can happen and it usually remedies itself with time. I hope this brings some comfort in what can be a stressful time.

@Bhasha90 wrong username above in my reply. Tagging you back in. Thanks

@SleepEatPoopRepeat so glad to see your reply and that you had a healthy baby girl! Your comment does relieve me and I’m just hoping for the same outcome

@minipie I know this was YEARS ago but how did this pregnancy go?

Hello!
I can't believe this thread is from 2009 and yet it is still the biggest source of information available about DV alteration.
With all markers normal, normal NT and nasal bone, they reported a reversed A-wave with a PI of 1.370. I imagined the worst, and I have been like this for 15 days, unable to enjoy my wife's pregnancy.
In this era, AI exists, which has given me much more peace of mind than the doctor, but even so, it is not the human voice. We have an early scan scheduled exactly at 17 weeks, in about 10 days. Only now, thanks to this thread, have I managed to calm down by 90%.
I hope your children are doing very well and are happy! I will come back to tell you how it went and to be able to provide peace of mind to more people who are suffering because of this!

Gosh, this is a blast from the past! I’m one of the previous posters who had reverse DV, came up “high risk” at the 12 weeks screening and I posted when awaiting the results of a CVS. I never updated the thread, whoops, but the CVS was all clear. Only hiccup was that DD was born 6 weeks early… I have no idea if that is related to a reverse DV or not! Anyway just updating for anyone else looking for this in the future.