nuchal translucency

[Hopeful1977]

I have my first trimester nuchal translucency screening and everything was great except the technician couldn't get a "clear" picture of the nose bridge.  I'm waiting on the blood cork to come back but has this happened to anyone else? Since they couldn't get the baby to move around so they could get a better picture, they want to do testing but my doctor says to wait.  Should i ask if they can try to see if again?

[Hopeful1977]

Thanks!  I thought so. The NT was 1.5 and they said they don't like anything 3 and higher.  EVERYTHING else was just as it should be.  I had to have an amnio with me son (years ago) because they couldn't see the bottom of his spine (spina bifida)  and that came out great too

[Ashelen]

If the nasal bone is the only structure they weren't able to observe I wouldn't worry too much. All of the other soft markers were absent, I'm guessing? One marker by itself might raise your risk factor but it isn't necessarily alarming on it's own. I've been told that as long as the limb lengths were good and the nuchal fold wasn't enlarged (and no cleft palate was visible) that pretty much the other markers aren't very reliable. I just got a 20wk ultrasound and found out that my son had a calcium spot on his heart which can be considered a marker, but because all of the other markers were absent they said not to worry (still scary though!).

I mean you can request another screening if you want, but if your doctor says to wait I wouldn't worry too much....would you consider doing the amnio if the nasal bridge turned up as a soft marker? If not, then there's not much point in pushing for another u/s, but if you WOULD consider the amnio, then I'd go ahead and push because you have a limited time frame during pregnancy to get these tests done. Since it sounds like you already had the AFP blood test I'd just wait and see what it says.

Did they say when you'd get the results back on the AFP?

[montanagirl7676]

I think you should wait for your blood work to come back. At 12 weeks, they are still pretty small, so it can be difficult to capture a good shot of the nasal bones. If your NT value looked good & your blood work looked good, I would think trying to capture the nasal honed on another scan would be sufficient?

[kmgrind]

What is a nuchal translucency?