Hi. My wife is pregnant with her first child. I'm 22, she's 20, she's now in
her 30th week and the 21st wk ultrasound found that she has a single
umbilical artery (SUA) and so we were told to get a foetal echocardiography.
This was performed yesterday and the foetus was discovered to have 2 to 3
Ventricular Septal Defects (VSD) of "small-to-moderate" size:
to quote the relevant bit of his report: "Normal right and
left ventricular size and function, 2-3 muscular VSDs - A
3mm apical, 2mm mid-muscular and possibly another 1mm mid-
high muscular VSD. 6MMHG shunt is seen (no PS)." the rest of
his report reports everything's fine.
The doctor said that this may be a sign of one of the
"syndromes".
The 21st week ultrasound revealed no other defects or
deformities, so we want to know what the chances of the
child being born being with a syndrome is, given these
factors? Is the doctor right? Should we worry?
Does anyone know the chances of this number (2-3) of defects
of these sizes at this "age" closing spontaneously either
before or after birth?
(We won't do an "amniocentesis" because of the small chance
of miscarriage and because we wouldn't consider an abortion
whatever the circumstances.)
thanks, Ash.
PS. We're going to have another foetal echocardiography in 3
weeks so the doctor can check if the defects are
closing, or worse.
PP One other point, which the doctor says is unrelated, is
that my wife has thrombocytopenia (a very low PLT count
- her's is about 60k).