NT Scanning - Should You OR Shouldnt You...

We went for the supposedly "routine" NT testing today.

NT scan helps to measure the clear ("translucent") space in the tissue at the back of your developing baby's neck. It screens for abnormal chromosomes, such as Trisomy 21(Down Syndrome), 18 & 27, for neural tube defects such as spina bifida & congenital heart problems.
In layman's term, just remeber that a third chromosome is present at a particular genetic location, instead of a pair - thus the name "Tri"somy(the condition of having three copies of a given chromosome in each somatic cell rather than the normal number of two).
Babies with abnormalities tend to accumulate more fluid at the back of their neck during the first trimester, causing this clear space to be larger.

Previously, I had called my health insurance co. regarding the coverage & I had received conflicting answers. But I trusted the latter positive response.

It is a two part appointment; first with a Genetic counselor & the second is the prenatal ultrasound with a blood test to check the levels of HCG(human chorionic gonadotrophin), PAPP-A(plasma protein A) & AFP(fetoprotein).

NT must be done between 11 weeks 0 days and 13 weeks 6 days menstrual gestational age as the translucency under the skin at the back of the fetal neck, is transient & becomes thick, and may be gone if you look after 14 weeks.

Every 'normal' woman, of age 30(without any family history or prescription) has 1 in 700 chances of carrying a baby with genetic abnormality. Remember that this test doesn't directly test for chromosomal problems — it just gives you a better idea of your baby's statistical likelihood of having a problem. A normal result (sometimes called "screen negative") isn't a guarantee that your baby is normal, but it suggests that a chromosomal problem is unlikely. And an abnormal result (sometimes called "screen positive") doesn't mean that your baby has a chromosomal problem — just that he's more likely to have one.
The results of this test are 80 percent accurate in detecting the risk of having a baby with Down syndrome. That means that if you're carrying a baby with DS, there's an 80 percent chance that the test will pick that up and give you a "screen positive" result indicating that further testing is recommended. It also means there's a 20 percent chance that the test will miss the DS and give you a "screen negative" result, in which case diagnostic testing won't be recommended!
This does not mean that a "screen positive" baby has an 80 percent chance of having DS. It just means that 80 percent of babies who have DS will have screening results that are suspicious enough to recommend diagnostic testing. And 20 percent of babies who have DS will be shown to be at normal risk — that is, the results will be falsely reassuring.
The test also has a 5 percent false positive rate. A "false positive" result is one that suggests there may be a problem when, in fact, there is no problem. In this case, a 5 percent false positive rate means that 5 percent of the babies with normal chromosomes who are tested will be "screen positive" — the test will show them to have an increased risk even though they're normal. Based on this "false positive" result, their mothers may go ahead with invasive diagnostic testing that they otherwise might not have. (And they'll probably worry more, too, until a CVS or amnio shows that their baby is fine.)

So ineffect, who should go for this scanning? I will strongly say that if & only if you fall under the following category, should you go ahead with this screening! Trust me - this will save you from a lot of headache!
-- If you are 35 years & older &/OR
-- If you have a family history &/OR
-- If your OB doctor has prescribed you.

I will highly recommend that you talk with your practitioner or a genetic counselor about how to interpret the results, because unless you have a lot of experience with statistical analyses and evaluating medical tests, they can be very confusing...

We were lucky that we could see, in time, that we really didnt need to get this test done!

Also, we wanted to double check with our insurance provider regarding the coverage. To our relief, the u/s was but the blood work(worth some $100-$150) wasnt. We would have gone ahead with the testing anyway ...but we didnt feel the need to put ourselves into an unneccersary "situation".

The decision was easy to make - we didnt do the testing!

Now looking forward to my first appointment with the Gynac!

Oh BTW, the "news" is all over the place! Yesterday, at a b-day party, one of the gals asked me the question & so we decided to tell it all!