dilated ventricles in brain on 20 week scan

[thisisyesterday]

what does this mean??? is it indicative of anything scary? or just one of those things??

[scienceteacher]

What did they tell you?

Are you going back for another scan in a few weeks?

[thisisyesterday]

well, sonographer kept re-measuring and had about 4/5 diff measurements from 9.6-10
she explained that a measurement of 10 or more means they would send me for a blood test and anoither scan, but because there had only been one 10 measurement she got the head sonographer to come in and take a look.,
she did 2 more measurements, one of 9 and one of 9.4 I think.
so they decided to leave it at that. it was only on one side.

so, basically it was measuring on the high side of "normal". I felt ok with the explanation at the time, but the more I think about it the more uneasy I feel!
she did say it can be relatd to having had an infection, and I did have a UTI, so might just have been that??

[Mung]

Did they not explain what the risk is of '10 or more'? What would the blood test have checked for? It seems odd that they didn't explain more to you.

[thisisyesterday]

the blood test would have tested to see if I had had any kind of viral infection recently.

i mean, she did say that the cut-off is there for a reason, and the "average" of the measurements they took was below 10, so there was no need for any further scans or anything,.

but i just can't get it out of my mind now!

[SheWillBeLoved]

Oh try not worry easier said than done I know. If they are happy that no further scans/tests are needed, then your baby will be fine x

[thisisyesterday]

i know, i keep telling myself that!
and also she said that they usually only measure one side, so they probably miss some anyway!

but you know what it's like, it just goes round in your head and I've not been brave enough to google in case I read something terrible about it

[CornBreadQueen]

i had the same thing with ds who was born in Sept. they detected that his ventricles were also on the larger side of normal and one was slightly larger than the other. his were 10.4 mm on side and 8 on the other. the virus they're checking for is CMV. my results came back finding that i had the antibodies for CMV but they couldn't determine whether i came in contact with it while i was pregnant or before. we had scan every 4 weeks to check his ventricles and they remained the same. they also did tests once he was born and determined that he never contracted it.

CMV is a virus that most people come in contact with. it's like having a cold and some people don't even show symptoms. if it's passed onto the baby (which can happen if it's contracted during pregnancy) it can cause birth defects such as deafness or blindness later in life or other minor birth defects in rare cases. they say that sometimes it can cause larger ventricles, but they're talking like over the 12mm size. i would advise against googling it because otherwise you'll just freak out like i did because you won't find any information that isn't horrific.

the doctors did tell us after he was born that having two different sized ventricles or ventricles that are slightly larger than what's "normal" is just like having an eye that's slightly larger than the other or having slightly larger feet than other people.

if the technician wasn't worried than i wouldn't be either. just happy for you that everything else came out clear!!

[thisisyesterday]

CBQ thank you for sharing tghat, it has made me feel better! I think I will mention it to the midwife when I see her next too.
I have also considered asking if I can have another scan, just to get it checked again and make sure all is ok.
but do feel reassured by your post, thanks

[BabyBaby123]

my ds had this too - he is fine - his were over 10 and I was monitored throughout the second half of my pregnancy. It was worrying but if the rest of the baby looks fine then I'm sure it's ok, normally if there is fluid on the brain or something, it is obvious in other ways apart from just the dilated ventricles - and they would continue to dilate - this is what they were checking me for - if they are not even scanning you again then I think there is no issue

[Mung]

As others have said, really try not to worry, especially given that they felt there was no need to carry out further tests.

[CornBreadQueen]

the consultant also mentioned that larger ventricles tend to happen in boys. (hopefully that didn't give the sex away if you weren't trying to find out)

[thisisyesterday]

cbq, happen to know any statistics on that???????

eep, we have 2 boys already lol although wouldn't be upset to get another one.

actually, just another q re: the ventricles. is there anything they can do if further scans show that it is getting worse??? or is it just that they want to know in advance of birth or whatever?

[Woooozle100]

ooh re cmv thing - my ds was born with this (no indication of anything in pg), no symtoms of owt at birth (found out by accident really due to tests taken cos of bm jaundice)

He is fine - still has to have hearing checks until age of 3 (is 15 mo now) but really not very likely to be be any damage to hearing now.

Basically even if baby is born with cmv infection there is only v v small chance of probs as a result (5% serious - obvious at birth due to clinical factors; 5% hearing probs in early years - most emerging in 1st year)

Pls try not to worry. All the best x

[CornBreadQueen]

sorry, no clue on #'s. was just told by the consultant that he sees it more often in boys than girls.

as far as i know they can't really do much about the ventricles during the pregnancy. they could do an amnio to test and see if the baby was exposed to cmv if you come up positive. doc advised us against it because baby's ventricles weren't too large and there were no other obvious problems with the baby.

pixie wow that's so great to hear that there no lasting effects! docs are advising us to keep having ds's hearing checked even though there was no positive test result for it.

wish that they would inform more about cmv because it is so common and is incredibly scary being told that you contracted it and have absolutely no clue what it is.

[emkana]

The term for larger-than-normal ventricles is ventriculomegaly. Large ventricles can be a sign of all sorts of things. My ds was found to have them at the 20 week scan and turned out to have dwarfism, but they found other signs on ultrasound as the pregnancy went on. If you do a search for ventriculomegaly on here you will find a few things.

Having said that, with a measurement under 10 you really have nothing to worry about.

[thisisyesterday]

thanks again everyone. all your replies have been incredibly reassuring.
everything else on the scan was absolutely normal and fine, so I will try and put this to the back of my mind and enjoy the rest of my pregnancy

[CornBreadQueen]

yeah leningrad once you have CMV you usually won't get it again. the only time they worry about it being passed to the baby is if you contract it for the first time while you are pregnant. sometimes you can have a "flare-up" and your antibody levels will go up (which was what happened in my case). this can happen because your immune system is compromised a little during pregnancy to make sure the baby isn't attacked by it.

hth

[CornBreadQueen]

the only reason they tested for CMV on me was because of the ventriculomegaly in ds. they did the blood test and the way they figured that i had it was through the antibody levels. the IgG and the IgM levels were elevated, but since the IgM levels weren't as high or higher than the IgG levels they could tell that it was an old infection. [they just couldn't tell if i had contracted it at some point during the pregnancy and had to wait until ds was born to test him for it] (IgM antibodies are like the front-line men, they go in and mark the infection first and that's when you'll have a spike in IgM, then once your body actually starts attacking the infection the IgG antibodies levels will increase and the IgM's will go down)

from what the consultant told me, some people will contract it and never know. others will have it and it will show up like a throat infection or will just have cold-like symptoms.

from what i gathered from the consultant, he would only check for it if there were anomalies during the scan. i really wouldn't worry about having CMV or it's effects on your baby if they've already been tested and it came up positive.

[CornBreadQueen]

glad i could help. hope this pregnancy goes smoothly for you and that all's well!!

the good thing is that you can rule out the cmv as a cause if anything does come up (praying for you that nothing does).

[Anisa18]

Hi everyone new to the group
I just went in for a normal routine 35 weeks scan and I was told baby has severe ventriculomegaly measuring 23mm and 25mm with cysts and blood clots

I really don’t know what to expect there is not much information about this issue

Doctors won’t tell me anything for sure till baby is born I was also giving the option to terminate pregnancy even at this late stage of pregnancy...

I’ve joined a Facebook group and have herd wonderful hopeful stories and I’m just praying my little one is safe and healthy x

I have an Fetal MRI booked for next week so I’m hoping for good results

Just really trying to stay positive here x

I would love to here the results of everyone’s VM stories (After birth)

[CatintheFireplace]

Hi @Anisa18 - that sounds really scary

I don't have any experience in afraid but just wanted to suggest that you start your own thread on the topic to get more responses - often readers will only read the opening post so they might not see yours.

I really hope everything goes well for you.