Fluid around my son's heart! I am sooo worried!

[tiffanyanglesey]

My husband and I went in for our 23 week ultrasound and we found out that our son has a small amount of fluid around his heart....About 1.2mm to be exact. I believe it is called a pericardial effusion. Everything else with the ultrasound was normal....The heart rate was at 153 and all four chambers of the heart were present. However, the radiologist then gave me a referral to receive a fetal echocardiogram in a few weeks and I all the sudden started getting very nervous! I called my doctor and she told me not to worry, but I still am of course. Anyway....I want to be prepared for the worst....But no one will give me a worse-case scenario.....And I cannot find any information on the internet. Can anyone tell me what I need to be prepared for? Again....Everything else was normal in the ultrasound...Except for the extra fluid around the heart and my blood type is not RH Negative which can also be a factor. Any help would be great! Thanks, Tiffany

[rchelle]

Did you end up having your follow-up ultra sound?  I went to the Dr. yesterday for my 20 week appointment & was given the same news, trace amounts of fluid found around the heart in my 19 week ultrasound, but everything else looks great....heartbeat is 150.

My Dr. told me not to worry she is not concerned at all.  But like you I am still so worried!!

So I was just curious if you've found anything else out, becasue you are right, there is little on the web about this!

Thanks!

[tiffanyanglesey]

Thank you so much for all your comments! It helped greatly! Tiffany

[christine613]

A very similiar thing happened to my best friend while she was pregnant. She went for a fetal echocardiogram and then went for several visits at a perinatologist (i think) to monitor the heart. Finally, around the last few weeks of pregnancy she was told the condition cleared up on it's own. She was overjoyed but she said she felt like she wasted part of her pregnancy being worried. Try not to let that happen to you- just relax and remain confident that it will clear up on it's own. Enjoy your pregnancy.

[njeosys]

Most of those resolve on their own. They referred you to make sure that it does resolve on its own or whether surgery needs to be done on the baby.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pericardial_effusion

http://www.jultrasoundmed.org/cgi/content/abstract/13/4/291

http://forums.obgyn.net/ultrasound/ULTRASOUND.0212/0083.html

A lot of this is difficult to read through, but it was the best I could find. The wikipedia one isn't about a fetal disorder, but just gives info on the general condition.