false positive for down syndrome

[embohdi]

hi there i am hoping to hear from other mums who were given a high risk of their baby having down syndrome. i was told at 21 weeks that my baby boy had dialated renal pelves and also missing middle bone in the little finger of both hands. we were told that these were 2 soft markers for downs.by this stage i was close to 23 weeks and as i was feeling movements i couldnt terminate even if it was down and i couldnt risk losing a posibly healthy baby. i doubted my descision everyday and cried myself to sleep regularly. i was rescanned at 31 weeks only to find the same thing! my baby boy was born at 39 weeks weighing 3700g and is perfectly healthy in every way and he is not missing any bones at all! i hope i can help other mums wait out these tests as i know how hard it is to find someone who understands to talk to. im sure had i had that the last weeks of my pregnancy would have been alot better. :hugs:

[Aquamarine]

So glad your little boy was born healthy and well (not that there is ANYTHING wrong with gorgeous Down's Kids:hugs: )
It kind of gives you doubts about the medical profession when this sort of thing happens.

How can they say there are finger bones missing when there aren't??

What a worry?

[SorenLorensen]

great to hear you had a healthy baby, since thats all that matters anyway,
i have a friend whos daughter was very high risk down syndrome, and had alot of other madical problems on top of that, they never really cared about the ds because her health was a little more important, she was born with out down sydrome and was healthy, so it does happen.

you must have had a real roller coaster ride while pregnant

[embohdi]

iyes i do have doubts about how sure of things they can be with ultrasound. i have no idea how they could say he was missing a bone i mean he obviously had one it didnt just appear the day he was born. they also told us he had kidney problems in the scan but when they scanned him at 3 days old his kidneys were both functioning just fine. i was very relieved but at the same time i couldnt help but wonder how many other people had been told things and that were not correct. i realise they cannot tell you 100% yes he has downs or no he hasnt but what if we had terminated and our baby was healthy?

[licorice]

I have a fairly good understanding of obstetric ultrasound and the finding on ultrasound that I suspect is being discussed here is what is known as hypoplasia of the 5th finger (it is commonly referred to as an absent bone in the 5th finger). Hypoplasia is a descriptive term meaning underdevelopment so it is possible that at 20 or 31 weeks of pregnancy or later, the small middle bone of the 5th finger was still underdeveloped so that it could not be identified by the ultrasound, it does not necessarily mean that it was totally absent. It is the same with fetal kidneys, the collection area of the kidney (the renal pelvis) can be enlarged on scan for part or all of the pregnancy but have reduced to a normal size after birth and that is why they often scan it after birth to check it then as it may require further monitoring following delivery.
Both of these findings are only referred to as markers for Down syndrome, many babies without Down syndrome have them during pregnancy and so it is possible for the ultrasound to increase the statistical chance of the baby having Down syndrome but it does not acutally diagnose the condition. The most common ways to do this in pregnancy is by chorionic villus sampling or by amniocentesis. These procedures will provide diagnosis as opposed to ultrasound which is screening.
Hope this helps answer your queries.

[nicoleE]

Thanks for sharing your information girls.

It makes you worry doesnt it, how many babies have actually been aborted because they were thought to have something wrong when infact they may have been born with everything (chromosones, bones, organs etc, etc) perfectly intact...

I have nothing against abortions, I think that is a decision for the parents to make and them only but it is scarey to think about such a thing happening....


I think stories like these will give women strengh and hope.
We are currently waiting on our NT results and although we should be in the low risk category (our Ob wasnt even going to suggest the test to us) you never know and it still plays on your mind. I just want our little bubs to be perfect and have all the oportunities in life others are blessed with.

[Zada]

when i was preg with DD i was told she had a very high risk of spina bifida the doctors were telling me to abort:mad: Anyway my girl was born and theres absolutly nothing wrong with her