hello lovely OB nurses! I have a question I'm hoping you will set aside my past posts on the board to answer anyway :)
what, exactly, is the significance of echogenic foci on baby's heart in ultrasound?
I know it is a *SOFT* marker for Trisomy 21 (Down's). At a 14w ultrasound the tech specifically mentioned that the nuchal fold was not thickened, and that the nasal bone (at that point cartilige) was present and accounted for, both good signs against Trisomy 21. She did not mention either during the 22w ultrasound although I know she did measure the nuchal fold, and judging from the baby's profile the nasal bone is definitely there!
So what ELSE can it mean? Is there a chance of heart defect, or is it just a case of "baby's heart was in a bad position for picture taking that day" - she did have a hard time getting a good picture of all 4 chambers because baby's back was facing outward.
Second, is there any significance that there was, presumably, more than just one echogenic focus on the heart (midwife said "and the echogenic foci were all resolved?" leading me to believe there was more than one)
I declined AFP so I don't have that result to look at either.
The background story:
I have had 3 ultrasounds during this pregnancy: 6w 1d, 14w 5d and 22w 5d. Obviously at the 6w ultrasound they couldn't have seen echogenic foci. The 14w ultrasound was because I was larger than dates and my MW wanted to rule out multiples or incorrect dates from the first ultrasound (I had no idea when the baby was conceived) so it was short and to the point. After that US one of the doctors came in and read the result right there, and said everything was 100% perfect, baby measuring bingo for dates, all looks good, congrats. The 22w ultrasound was the "Level 2" ultrasound and the tech told me my MW would go over the results at my next appointment.
Well when I went in for my next appt the midwife was just sort of breezing over everything and asked, "so did you have a follow-up ultrasound done?" I was confused to say the least, and said "well, I don't think so; I had the Level 2 two weeks ago but nothing since then " THEN she dropped this on me "and the echogenic foci were all cleared up right?" WELL HOW DO I KNOW, no one said anything to me, this was the first I'd even heard that there WERE echogenic foci.
Obviously at my next appointment I plan to make her clarify this! But that's another week away and while I'm not *SUPER* worried I'd like a bit of reassurance if you can offer it .
the only info I'm googling is going over the significance of Echogenic Foci with regard to Trisomy 21 (which, by the way, appears to be the source of much controversy!)
