I don't know, and I am having another ultrasound in two weeks to check out the same thing. I'm 29 and didn't think there was any need for amniocentesis. I've been reading lots of different comments and it seems to be a rather low risk of Down's Syndrome. But two weeks seems like a lifetime away. There are a few other possibilities, and it may end up to be nothing of circumstance! Best wishes!! ↑
Thank you. I will let you know. I am sure they wil be normal, as I received the results from my AFP yesterday and they were normal. The midwife at my docotor's office said that the EIF will most likely go away! ↑
Yes, I had a friend who went through the same thing. Her blood screen was ok but they were really scaring her with the spot on the heart. Her baby is just fine. i don't blame you for not risking an amnio. Keep the faith. I also had a scare with my triple screen but so far my ultra sound looks good.:) The genetic counselor just threw statistics at us. Keep in mind they are covering their butts not to mention the money $$ to be made from an amnio. I did a lot of research on the triple screen. Some research shows a false positive rate of up to 80%!!! They are basicallt casting out a huge net to try & pull in the 1 or 2 women who may actually have a baby with downs. Even with a 1/80 chance of having a baby with downs, this puts a woman at a less than 1% risk of having a baby with downs. If you have a clear ultra sound your risk is even less!! The triple screen really needs to be re-evaluated. The stress it puts women through is not good for Mom or baby! Women need to be better informed if a Dr calls them to say the test came back positive, it does NOT MEAN THE BABY HAS DOWNS. Only that it increases your risk & more testing may be needed. Have faith ladies. The stress is not good. I figure if my risk is less than 1% & I do have a baby with downs- well then, this is what was meant to be. Remember-faith & negativity cannot share the same body. KEEP THE FAITH!!!! ↑
Hi everyone. I just got the results of the quad screen today and everything was negative. So we were relieved. The doctor said that I may have another ultrasound later and the white spot may still be there or it may not be be. I guess it's just one of those things that is unpredictable. ↑
I just had my ultrasound. The doctor told me that my son has calcium deposits( white spot) in the heart and dilated kidneys (markers for down syndrome0. It has been so encouraging to read everybodys experience. I,m praying that my son will be normal. I have opted out of the amnio. I will be 35 when I have my baby. I would like to know if there is anyone who has had a healthy baby with similar markers. ↑
Hi Betty, I too am waitin.....I am due on Jan1, 2006 and my little girl also has dilated kidneys (5mm) and the calcium deposits on the heart..My doctor seems unconcerned and my chances of a down's baby are less than 1%. If you go to babycenter.com there is a board which is called "two soft markers" and it is loaded with stories of women who have had these same markers and had healthy babies. Go there! It helped me alot! Good luck to you!
I posted in September with a foci on the baby's heart. My husband and I decided to have an amnio, and we found out the everything is A-OK. I have to say it was such a relief to have done the amnio and to know for certain that everything was OK. And even if it was not, it would have been good to know so that we could have been prepared and have time to educate ourselves about DS. The most interesting thing about our case is that on our last US, the doctor actually commented that he was surprised that we had elected to have the US in the first place because the foci itself, with all other indicators being negative, including the quad screen, was not that much to worry about. It was the doctor that scared us so much in the first place that we decided to have the US! Thank you all for your prayers and support. I will continue to pray for all of you! ↑
Hello to everyone! I am glad i came across this site. After reading all of your comments i feel more relieved. Yesterday @ work the nurse called me telling me that ma baby had something wrong with his heart. That i needed to get a second ultrasound from a specialist. As i heard this my heart sank. I felt weak. I am only 22 weeks and this is my first child. I am 22 and by the looks of it a single mom. As i got to the doctor they told me they say the "dreadful white spot" in his heart. They explained to me that it was a ok. To not worry. But yet again this wasn't easy for me to hear all alone in this room. I felt devastated. The doctor gave me as much information as all of your doctors did. I am not going for the amnio test. I don't have faith in it. I pray for all of you to have healthy babies. And would like for you all to keep me and ma baby boy in your prayers... Thanks. ↑
Hi Everyone, I wish that I had come across this when I was pregnant. My bloodwork came back positive for the risk of downs syndrome so I went for a level 2 u/s. That is when we saw the bright spot on his heart. When we had the follow up u/s his kidneys were also dilated. When I was 51/2 months pregnant his kidneys were the size of that of a full term baby, I dont recall the exact measurement. I was 28 at the time and my risk of having a baby with downs was 1 in 48. We had ultasounds up until a month and a half before my baby was born. I had a HEALTHY baby boy (over 9lbs!!) back in March, so please keep the faith. The echogenic foci remained there during the entire pregnancy and we actually had an ekg? and a sedated echo performed on him when he was about 4 months old to make sure everything was okay with his heart. The spot is still there, in fact there are now two of them, but his heart is perfectly healthy. So I guess I want you all to know that my heart goes out to all of you but try not to allow this to overshadow your excitement and joy of having your baby because even if the odds are totally against you there is always hope. I wish you all well! ↑
I JUST FOUND OUT TODAY THAT I ALSO HAVE ECHOGENIC AND I AM 17 WEEKS. MY DR TOLD ME ITS NOTHING TO WORRIED ABOUT BUT I LOST ONE BABY ALREADY. I AM PRAYING TO GOD THAT EVERYTHING GOES WHILE. I WILL GOING FOR A 2 U/S. PLEASE PRAY FOR ME ↑
I had my blood work come back negative times 4 and for my age of 37 when the baby will be born that put me at 1:700 for baby with Downs so that made me feel great. Then they did the whole ultrasound at 17 weeks and looked at all the soft markers, the only one that they found was the spots on the heart. That put me at risk of 1:350 at that point. We will go back at 22 weeks for another ultrasound on heart to see if there are any other defects of the heart since the heart isn't large enough to see everything. I have been doing alot of looking on the internet and some things say bad stuff about this and others say not to worry. I really hope that our baby is healthy. I am trying to put it into perspective of that if something were to happen to our 4 year old daughter and she became disabled we would still love and care for her. I hope everyone will come back and post after their babies are born, good or bad. My thoughts are with everyone and hope for positive outcomes for you all. ↑
I have had one level 2 ultrasound, and need to go back again for the EKG on the baby's heart and another ultrasound in a week. Can anyone tell me what the EKG test is like? I am also wondering if I might be better off NOT knowing about this bright spot. It seems like such a slim chance of "being something" that I might rather not have known it was even there. Take care everyone! ↑
The EKG is similar to the way an ultrasound is done but they just look specifically at the babys heart. I had it done it took about 30-45 minutes. I worried so much about this bright spot and I have a healthy child. ↑
I posted awhile ago about the echo spots on my daughter's heart, and we declined any further testing. The spot was on all following ultrasounds... well, baby is here and not only healthy, she is BEAUTIFUL and completely healthy. Take care and have faith and enjoy the rest of your pregnancy. ↑
Hi!
I posted back in August. I wanted to let everyone know that I had a baby girl on 11/11 she -- was born at 33 weeks, 6 weeks early and was in the NICU for 13 days, but she is fine now and she got to come home. The doctors did an echo and could see the focus, but she does not have Downs and is perfectly healthy. I just wanted to let everyone here know of a success story. BTW, her coming early was not related to the echo, it was another problem we had. Good luck to everyone else out there!!! ↑
Name: Maidencanada | Date: Nov 29th, 2005 12:53 PM
Congrats Steffi on your baby girl and thanks for updating us! ↑
yes, congratulations to Steffi and Kris A! Wonderful news and thank you for the updates. Curious, do the doctors want to follow up with looking at the heart after the baby is born? ↑
Congrats on all the new babies! It's definitely reassuring to hear all these stories. As far as checking out the heart after birth, my doctors have all told me that the spot seems to have nothing to do with the functionality of the heart. I find this puzzling, but hey, I am not going to worry any more. I am tired of worrying. I am just going to be happy about the pictures I am getting of the baby from all of these ultrasounds...lol! Now on to the days of swollen feet and hoping my placenta moves up without any issues! Take care everybody. ↑
Our baby girl needs no further testing, they spent a bit of time at birth listening, and pronounced her one hundred percent! I know first hand how scary those 'abnormal' ultrasounds can be, but the echo spots are - of themselves- just not worth the time we spend worrying about them... god bless. ↑
i'm 24,pregnant with my first baby and recently had a 20 week scan whereby i was told that my baby boy had a white spot on his heart, i had all the tests re-done but opted out of an amnio as they are high risk and i would not terminate if there was a problem. i got my results back yesterday and everything is absolutely normal. my question is, does anyone have the feeling that these "scares" are for money making purposes? i wish all the mom's and dad's going through this same process the best of luck. ↑
One reason I don't think it is for money is because of the medical plan we have. I hope I don't get in trouble listing it here but it is Kaiser. We don't pay anything extra. Maybe it is to cover their butts. I loved the doctor that did the ultrasound and we talked before he started and we told him we wanted to know everything and he is letting us know everything even to the point of he can do the amnio if we just can't sleep but to know that some women who have it, two weeks later they get the results which are normal and they end up miscarring. I have read that on the internet as well.
How can you say it is for money making purposes? It is not like they are making up this white spot on our baby's hearts. I just dont understand your point on that. My insurance didnt charge any more money for further ultrasounds and testing so I just dont see how they would be making money from disclosing this information. My son has this white spot on his heart also and I am terrified but I am greatful for the doctors telling me All of the info concerning this and giving me All the options regarding testing. I am not trying to be nasty just saying my point of view. Happy holidays mommas! ↑
As a health care administrator I would guess that money is somewhat involved, but not in as sinister a way as was suggested earlier. I suspect that many of these scares (I am going through one myself right now) result from our doctors informing us of every little risk no matter how remote because of the fear of malpractice suits. The ob/gyn specialty is one of the most heavily sued specialties in American medicine today.
I would also say to Jessica that even though you were not charged an out of pocket expense for your second ultrasound, whoever did the second ultrasound was certainly paid by somebody for doing it (your insurance in this case). If your insurance didn't pay for it, you would have been charged, or you probably woudn't have been able to get the ultrasound. This is one of the reasons low-income people have such a hard time getting quality care. Someone eventually has to pay for the services you receive. That is simply the nature of the health care industry. ↑
susan, you make a good point. The money will always be part of it. The specialist who told me about the spot said she had to disclose it, though, if I were under 35, she would not have had to? I am sure it is to protect from a lawsuit in case something does go wrong. Kris A, so good to hear that your baby is healthy!!! ↑
I went for another (thank goodness my last!!) special ultrasound/fetal echo this week, and thank goodness everything was fine. They said the white spot was simply a muscle fiber. A lot of worry for nothing, but still, I am glad I went through these extra tests! The doctors and techs who did them seemed more knowledgeable and friendly, and like they actually cared about what they were doing! It was a nice change from going through the clinic-style testing!! ↑
I am 27 years old and 24 weeks along. I just got news that my baby girl has an echogenic foci. Although reassured by my doctor that this is very normal, my concerns have heightened for the health of my baby. Even before finding this out, every shooting star, every penny found heads up and every old wives tale in between was that I would have a happy healthy baby. Every parent to be wonders and prays that their baby will be perfect. I hope and pray that all of our children are healthy. We shouldn't forget that babies born with down syndrome are beautiful as well. All babies are blessings from god. ↑
