Introduced in 1996, the nuchal translucency scanning was invented to identify aneuploidy (extra chromosomes including Down’s syndrome) irrespective of the mother’s age. International surveys have shown that patients with low risks of aneuploidy have a better pregnancy outcome than expected.
On the other hand, patients with high aneuploidy risks but a normal number of fetal chromosomes are more likely to face complications.
A fetus has an increased risk of cardiac anomaly or diaphragmatic hernia if a thick fluid layer is seen around the neck of the fetus. The risk of pre eclampsia (high blood pressure), APH (hemorrhage), pre-term delivery and IUGR (intrauterine fetal growth restriction) are high if the risks are increased due to adverse blood results.
Thus, the first trimester pregnancy screening can be done with ultrasound, beta HCG and PAPP-A, PlGF & AFP which are the best assessment tools for identifying the HIGH risk or LOW risk for an adverse outcome.
We are now able to identify pregnancy complications of any sort at the time of nuchal translucency screening.
This includes:
- Premature delivery chances.
- Baby with low birth weight.
- The chances of a mother developing pre-eclampsia.
The Fetal Medicine Foundation has developed this screening using:
- Medical history of the mother.
- Blood pressure of the mother.
- Mother’s resistance in uterine arteries.
- Additional biochemistry (blood tests) that is taken at 10 – 11 weeks gestation, when the Nuchal Translucency blood test is done.
After obtaining the above information, we can assess the risk, either high or low, for developing complications at the end of this scan. A fetus with high or low risk of trisomy 21 (Down syndrome), trisomy 13, and trisomy 18 can also be assessed.
The Nuchal translucence scan (NT) is associate ultrasound performed between eleven weeks three days and thirteen weeks half-dozen days in conjunction with a biopsy. However, we have a tendency to attempt to organize your appointment for between twelve weeks and thirteen weeks two days. This implies that ought to your baby live a touch tiny for dates, you are doing not need to come to own the scan continual. As an alternative, if your baby is massive for dates, we are able to still undertake the assessment.
It is necessary to notice that the NGO scan could be a screening take a look at, not a diagnostic assay. The nuchal translucence could be a fluid assortment placed at the rear of the fetus’ neck. All fetuses have this fluid assortment and it’s well envisioned towards the top of the primary trimester. We all know that a craniate with mental retardation can typically have a far larger fluid assortment than a craniate that doesn’t have mental retardation.
When a lady is pregnant, there are four hormones she produces which will vary if a baby has Down’s syndrome. The amount of those hormones area unit measured ideally between ten and eleven weeks gestation, before the ultrasound being performed (whenever possible). If they’re found to be within the traditional vary, this decreases the prospect of the baby having mental retardation. Once the nuchal translucence is measured and also the scan is complete, the sonographer can enter the knowledge from the scan and also the biopsy into a software package which can assess the danger for this explicit craniate.
The results would run to you as either ‘high risk’ or ‘low risk’ of the craniate having a body anomaly. For us, the patient 1:100 or worse would be thought of high risk. A patient 1:101 to 1:1000 would be thought of moderate risk and a patient with a risk higher than 1:1000 would be thought of low risk.
If you have got inconceivable the chance or opt for not having a Nuchal translucence Screening scan a primary trimester scan will still give a chance to envision the baby for several basic abnormalities like limb defects or major heart defects etc.
All scans in our apply area unit performed by sonographers totally commissioned with the craniate drugs Foundation (London). Once totally commissioned, the Australian and New island faculty of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists needs that each one sonographers and practices area unit strictly audited annually to confirm their high customary is maintained.
Normal Nuchal Translucency
Thickened Nuchal Translucency
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