20 week scan- Echogenic bowel?

[milkysmum]

Hi,

Had my 20 week scan last week and the sonographer thought she could see an echgenic area (bright bit) on the scan and asked me to come back today for the consultant to do a re scan. Just had this and consultant confirmed the bowel area was echogenic which can be an indication of CF?
After having alreday had a cvs at 11 weeks due to being a carrier of a chromosone disorder I just can't believe we are unlucky enough to now have this showing up! When we got the all clear on the cvs (apart from baby being a carrier of my chromosone inversion) I really thought we had the all clear on any serious health conditions. Consultant is going to check with genetic team in Manchester about whether they can confirm/ rule out the CF gene using my cvs sample- if not will need mouth swabs I think all of which will take a couple of weeks to come back? Anyone else got any expereince of echogenic bowel showing up on scan as have really never even heard of this before

[misty0]

No experiece lovie, just bumping for you. Someone here will know and be along soon. Best of luck xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[drivingmisscrazy]

I have no idea either, but would have thought that cf would have shown up on the karyotype from the cvs. Is there any cf in your family? Both you and your partner would need to be carriers. Hopefully someone with better knowledge will be along soon, but it seems strange to me that it would have been missed on the cvs as cf is one of the things they look for (they do here in Ireland, anyway, as ireland has one of the highest incidences of cf in the world).

[milkysmum]

I thought so to which is why last week I wasn't to bothered but then consultant said today that it wouldn't of showed up on the karotype. No there is no history of CF that I know of in either mine or dh's familiy.

[milkysmum]

Any one had personal expereince of this???

[Yaya70]

Hi milkysmum, I had echogenic bowel show up on a scan I had at 28 weeks. The consultant was unable to confirm it on the rescan, but he did say that as an isolated finding it's usually nothing to worry about (it can be a marker of other problems). I had a CVS too and from that they excluded CF (on the basis of absence of the pF508 mutation). Have you checked your CVS report -- does it definitely not mention the pF508 mutation?

There's another quite recent thread on echogenic bowel -- see here: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/pregnancy/1142265-20-week-scan-echogenic-bowel

[milkysmum]

I didn't get an actual copy of the CVS report- just a letter confirming that my baby had inherited my chromosone inversion but that he was only a carrier like me and would not be effected in any other way. If I ring do you think they will fax me through the CVS report- or check it for me on the phone for pF508 mutiation you mention?

[Yaya70]

It's definitely worth giving them a call to see if they did check for that mutation. I'm not sure if it's a standard thing, but they did it as part of my CVS as a routine thing.

[milkysmum]

Spoke to them at genetics today and no the CVS I have already had didn't screen for CF so now have to get the blood tests done to see if we are both carriers. If we are I guess we would be offered an amnio to check for certain if baby had cf? Not sure I could cope with another invasive procedure at this stage.

[ceebeegeebies]

Just wanted to share that DS2's 20-week scan showed up an echogenic bowel (I had never heard about it either). Me and DH both had blood taken to test for CF etc and had a further more detailed scan with a consultant a few days later. CF results came back clear, DS2 was (and is) absolutely fine although it was always in the back of my mind throughout the pregnancy.

We were told that the most common cause is the baby swallowing blood whilst in the womb - so if you had a bleed earlier in the pg, that would explain it (and apparently you may not even know you had had a bleed).

Strange thing is that once DS2 was born, no-one ever commented on the echogenic bowel - he had the usual newborn checks and nothing extra - it was as if the scan had never happened

Hope everything works out ok and try not to worry

[milkysmum]

Just wanted to say that we had our blood test results back today and neither dh or me are carriers of the cf gene so baby can't have cf. Likley hood is that baby swallowed some blood and will be fine X

[EggletinaClock]

I hope that's all it is and everything is ok.