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Hello! I posted on this site few months ago with the same concern, EIF. The dr found the dreaded spot on my 18th week ultrasound. I was so worried. But I am happy to announce that my baby boy was born healthy on April 29. =) I know it is hard not to think about EIF, but please not try to worry and enjoy the rest of the pregnancy.

Hi everyone... I posted back around my 20 wk ultrasound saying that an eif was detected on baby's girl heart.. I was so worried and upset because I was told it was a soft marker for down's syndrome. I denied getting an amnio and ultimately put my trust God. I am happy to announce I gave birth to a normal healthy baby girl on April 16th! I asked the dr who delivered my baby about the spot. She said it is a very common varient in pregnancies. This site encouraged me a lot and I just wanted to help others in encouraging them to have faith and try to enjoy teir pregnancies :)

Hi Patty. I am 18 weeks pregnant, 32 years old and I, too, just found out that my baby has an echogenic foci on his heart. My husband, daughter (age 10) and I went in to the office today (my birthday) to find out our baby's gender and to do the biophysical profile. After finding out we are finally getting our little boy, we were ecstatic! We were then taken into another room and told about the echogenic focus on his left ventricle, and then told that it was a marker for downs syndrome. The doctor seemed very apologetic, and honestly, not very encouraging at all. We left there devastated! After I got home, I began doing research, and thank heavens, I found these message boards. I called the office back and spoke with a nurse who a__sured me that only having the one marker was a really good sign. I am awaiting a call from the fetal medicine doctor for a fetal echocardiogram and more intense ultrasound to see if there are any more markers. I can only hope and pray that both you and I receive only good news from this point on. I believe that I will also opt out of the amnio if it is offered. I will be watching for updates, and keeping you in my prayers, as well. The postings on here have been so uplifting. I am still worried, but to hear so many stories of healthy babies, at least I know there is hope.

Hi, Just wondering how many of you had a nuchal transluceny (different to the nuchal fold at 18 wks) test and combined blood test done at the 12 week scan? I am from Australia and this is pretty routine as far as I can tell. I had a high nuchal translucency reading in the 97th percentile but awesome bloods and then they found the isolated EIF at 18 wks. Just wondering if anyone else had this? My risk is currently 1:998.

Hi annette32. I had the nuchal translucency test at 12 weeks, along with blood work and nasal bone detection. My results were 1:3610 for DS and nasal bone was visible. Later at 19 weeks an isolated EIF was detected. I did have another ultrasound at 29 weeks (at my request) and they measured everything and everything looked normal and baby was developing fine. Nobody seems to worry and I am trying to be hopeful that everything is fine. Nobody readjusted my stats from the first trimester screening, because my doctor said those stats count more, and isolated EIF doesn't change it. I am 33 weeks now and can't wait to see this baby. I am 28 years old.

Hi Anxiousbuthopeful, Yeah, it's so hard not to stress. I think that if my nuchal wasn't a high result I wouldn't be feeling so stressed. I am getting another scan done at 24 weeks just to check everything again so we'll see how that goes. The Dr rang me yesterday and told me that there has been heaps of research done on EIF's and the chance of there being an abnormality of the heart is virtually zero. As for Ds, who knows! Some say yes, some say no? Go figure? It leaves so many people confused!

I never posted while I was pregnant but wanted to share my story. At my 20 week scan my baby had the echogenic foci on his heart. I had good nuchal numbers but my risk went up after this was found. Now I was not panicked but I think I have a unique perspective, my first daughter has Down syndrome and we knew prenatally (this is also an added risk in having another child with an extra chromosome). Having a child with DS is not this horrible thing. Of course I was a little concerned because if I had to choose I would not want my child to have DS (there are many health concerns). Well with all my risks ( I am 35 too) my child was born 2 weeks ago with no extra chromosomes. He is just as perfect as his sister who has a little extra. Please try to enjoy your pregnancies.

Dear All: Another positive story to share with you all! I am 33yrs old and on April 27th delivered a perfectly healthy baby girl. At about 3 months, I had an abnormal triple screen placing my daughter at a 1:260 risk for Down's. At my Level II ultrasound the peri detected an echogenic focus. I was scared, crying, and spent the holidays in agony. At my follow up Level II in January, the focus was still present but much diminished. In fact, the peri told me that if he hadn't seen me before, he probably wouldn't have even seen the focus. That said, I never really stopped worrying. Now, I only have to worry about the fussies and 3am feedings because my baby daughter is absolutely fine. I know it is hard when it's your own personal experience but I truly wish I would've spent less time worrying and more time enjoying my pregnancy. I wish this even more now because complications arose during my delivery and I won't be able to have any more children. Hand it over to God and enjoy the miracle nestled inside of you. And, good luck and prayers to you all!

Hi I've been reading your posts for the last 2 days. I got a call from my doctor's office this week, stating that when our ultrasound results from Monday were read by the radiologist they found an echogenic focus on the baby's heart. After having an absolutely stress free perfect pregnancy with my first child, this was extremely upsetting news. I literally lost sleep this past Wednesday after getting this news. The nurse pract_tioner and the doctor both a__sured me that I had nothing to worry about as my Quad screen results were normal and my age is low (30), and this one "soft marker" doesn't indicate anything in and of itself. However, they offered me a level II ultrasound for "peace of mind", but said that I didn't need to go other than to put my mind at ease. I feel that it is easy for them to tell me not to worry ... this is not about their child. On top of this, they are taking forever to schedule my level II u/s appointment, even after me calling twice yesterday they still haven't scheduled my appointment. This is very frustrating. I don't know how I am going to be able to deal with the stress and worry until my u/s appointment ... on one hand I need to go for this appointment, but on the other, I am nervous that they are going to find more things wrong, despite the fact that I asked the doctor multiple times if everything else came back o.k. from our first u/s, and she rea__sured me that they did. ugh! Reading your blogs has definitely eased my mind a bit, but I am "wound tight" by nature and this is agony for me. Thanks to everyone for posting your stories. It feels good to read about others who are experience the same thing. Sorry for such a long entry! I had a lot to get off my chest.

I have been reading this post for a couple weeks and decided to post as well. I just tured 34 a couple weeks ago and am pregnant with my first child. I had an Ultrascreen test at about 12 weeks, which is a new, supposedly very accurate version of the AFP test/quad screen. (not really sure of all of the differences between these screens). Anyway my results came back to be 1 in 6000 chance. However at my 17 week ultasound, the spotted the echogenic foci. Although both the technician and the doctor a__sured me that I didn't need to be concerned, I am worried. It does help to see all these positive outcomes, and I really hope to be able to relax and enjoy my pregnancy. It definitely helps to be in correspondence with people with similar stories.

Update: We went to the specialists on Monday. They found a couple more concerning things during the level II ultrasound in addition to the echogenic focus. The baby may have a horseshoe kidney (in and of itself this is not an issue, the kidneys are just shaped differently) and the baby's left ventricle in the brain, which is supposed to be 10mm or less was 11mm. With the other 2 findings, the genetic counselor recommended doing amnio. At that point there was no question for my husband and I, but it is a very personal choice. However, it was the right choice for us and I'm glad we did it, because our FISH results came back perfectly normal and for a healthy baby! We have one more hurdle to overcome with the left ventricle. However, the genetic counselor, said it is highly likely to remain stable or resolve itself. We will know everything in a week and a half. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Update: We had our follow-up appointment yesterday. Our final amnio results were all normal and the baby's left ventricle was back to normal. All the testing that is done definitely causes a lot of stress ... however, it was nice to find out that our baby is healthy and doing well. i'm going to focus on enjoying the last 18 weeks of my pregnancy. everyone's postings definitely helped me through a stressful time. I hope mine can do the same for someone else.

Oh ... I forgot to mention that the echogenic focus was totally gone as well. If we only didn't get an ultrasound until week 22 we would have never gone through all of this ... but again it is comforting to know after all of this that our baby is healthy.

Hello- Having a very similar scenario to all the entries above, I have stayed glued to this forum looking for hope over the past 20 weeks. I have been praying to have my turn to report to you that I too have had a healthy baby! Our precious little angel was just born last week- healthy as could be! Whenever I brought up the EIF to any of the doctors, they said it was just crazy to have worried me about such a thing! Try to enjoy the rest of your pregnancies and best of luck!!!!

I had a ultrasound on June 22nd; I am 20 weeks pregnant and they found EIF as well as a nuchal fold of 8mm. The doctor told me instead of 1% I now have a 5% chance of my baby with d/s. Is this something to be worried about. I don't want to take aminocentesis, and wasn't able to take another other blood tests before, so I am now just uncertain and unprepared. Has anyone had something similar to mine?

I also had the same situation with an EIF found at 20 weeks. I worried for 20 more weeks and read this site constantly. I prayed I would have a happy story to tell and thank god I do. My son was born 06-27-08 and everything thing was fine. He is a healthy beautiful little boy. We are truly blessed. It is very hard not to worry, but I think this EIF thing is driving people crazy. My doctors told me the whole time not to worry.