Pregnancy/blood test question...

[kimwim8]

A friend of mine is pregnant & just had the blood test done for the downs syndrome & spina bifida. It came back positive...and now her OB is sending her to a genetics dr. It hasn't been THAT long ago with my pregnancies to remember that that particular blood test had a pretty high rate of false positives. I refused the test for DS & went for a level 2 ultrasound instead.

ANYWAY....I was wondering if anyone out there experienced the false positive with this test. It's easy for me to tell my friend this fact, but she has to wait over a week to see the genetics dr. and she's stressing.

TIA!!

 

[DisneyAddict_M]

My dd tested positive for spina bifida (this was about 4 1/2 years ago). It freaked me out through the whole pregnancy (even after the level II u/s came back negative). I went through a lot of unnecessary worry for nothing. I think I would opt out of the test next time.

 

[mickeyboat]

I opted out.

My SIL got a positive result and had an amnio. The results of the amnio came back negative, but the baby died in utero at 7 months.

Good luck to your friend.

Denae

 

[snappy]

I had a false positive on the blood test (I think they called it a triple test?)during my last pregnancy, but that was almost 10 years ago. I was already going to a maternal fetal specialist OB since I was 41+ when I got pregnant.

I had the amnio, my OB did it since he was a specialist and did many routinely (lower risk of complications). Everything went fine, no abnormalities.
But a lot of anxious nights ensued before we were able to schedule the amnio and obtain the results.

I remember this OB and the one I had on prior pergnancies both thought the blood tests at the time were good in that they are non-invasive, but problematic with false positives (and false negatives).

 

[Christine]

I had a false positive in my test (14 years ago). I swear that the nurse who was doing the test had overestimated by a few days how far along I was. Any tiny miscalculation in either direction will skew the numbers.

I ended up going to genetic counseling and had an amnio which all turned out fine. I can't believe they are not, at least, going to repeat the blood test.

 

[Annette_VA]

That would be me! Twice!

I "failed" the screen w/ both boys. My numbers indicated a "high" chance of Down's.

My OB sent me for a level 2 u/s with a maternal-fetal medicine dr. with the option of doing an amnio if the u/s couldn't rule anything out.

Luckily, the u/s showed that neither of my boys had any of the markers for Down's, so we didn't have to do amnios.

Tell your friend to just hold tight & try not to panic. It is a long wait between getting that call and the actual appt. I had to wait over a weekend each time and that seemed like an eternity. I hate that your friend has to wait a whole week.

 

[720L]

I had a friend who tested positive for Downs and she was a wreck. The baby was born without Downs.

 

[SeeDisney]

I too had a false positive come back for baby #2. I think the numbers were 1 out of 150 chance. I did the level II and everything was fine. My baby girl, now 7 is healthy and beautiful.

 

[golfgal]

We had a false positive with the twins, but they don't really have good data on what is normal for twins, they just double the single number, basically. We went for the more intensive ultrasound and DH and the OB ran all the numbers, they were have great fun figuring out all the probabilites, and came to the conclusion that the chances of either twin having something wrong were like 1 in 6 million or something (I stopped paying attention to their figuring about 30 seconds into the discussion and only really heard "don't worry").

 

[becka]

I don't have any personal experience with this but I do know that the false positives are pretty common. Usually it turns out to be nothing.

 

[Microcell]

I did not have a positive test, but I had an Ultrasound Tech tell me there was "Fluid at the base of DS's brain, around the stem" I had a panicky TWO WEEKS before seeing the specialist, who told me that was normal and that DS had chubby cheeks! He is fine and healthy!

Now if he would only potty train! "After my Spiderman Birthday party mom." was what he told me this morning. I may have to move his birthday up a month!

 

[kbkids]

I tested positive for Downs syndrome with DS just three years ago. Ironically, when he was born, he was closer to have spina bifida (he's okay - but they did have to run some extra tests on him to make sure). What's so ironic about that is that the numbers (don't remember which direction is which), but say Downs is high numbers, spina bifida is low numbers. So, my test was WAY OFF. His numbers should have been closer to spina bifida.

I wouldn't do it again because as my doctor asked after the positive results, would the results of an amnio cause you to terminate the pregancy? When I said no, he said I shouldn't do the amnio.

 

[DisneyAddict_M]

I had a false positive in my test (14 years ago). I swear that the nurse who was doing the test had overestimated by a few days how far along I was. Any tiny miscalculation in either direction will skew the numbers.

Exactly. I think they were 2 weeks off with me. I swear my dd was born at 38 weeks and not the 40 weeks they estimated me at. I also want to add that the sonographer for my Level II told me that I had a better chance of losing the baby during the amnio than there being anything actually wrong with her. That's why I decided not to do the amnio.

Good luck to your friend!

 

[robinb]

This is why I had a Chorionic Villus Sampling (CVS) at 10 weeks. It's a bit like an amnio, but done much, much earlier. Unfortunately, it only checks for chromosonal damage and not spina bifida and the like. I also had to have the blood test later in my pregnancy. The triple test can have false positives. It's best that she have at least an ultrasound and possibly an amnio. Please do not equate mickeyboat's friend's amnio with the death of the fetus at 7 months. There are risks with having an amnio, but those that produce fetal death usually happen much earlier in the pregnancy, right after the procedure.

 

[kimwim8]

Thank you so much everyone! I will definitely be sharing your experiences with my friend. I KNEW I'd get help from you all!

Oh, and MICROCELL.....I'm right there with you on the potty thing...don't even get me started!!

 

[JESW]

I had a false positve with the AFP test and was told my unborn child was at risk to be down syndrome. I went for a level 2 ultra sound where they checked for certain markers and saw no evidence of downs. We were also told we were having a GIRL when we were originally told we were having another boy. I also went on to have an amnio.

That baby is now a healthy 6 year old.

Best of luck to your friend....it is a real tough thing to go through and I remember it well even after this time.

Jill

 

[Galahad]

I was already going to a maternal fetal specialist OB

Aren't MFM's Great!

 

[DisneyDmbNut]

An AFP can give the wrong result if your doctor miscalculates your dates..
LOTS of patients have to go to the Level 2 because they get a positive result...

Good Luck and don't worry!

 

[Laurabearz]

These types of tests are often taken as what will be... In fact all they show is the 'odds' of something being wrong. My second pregency I was told that my normal odds for having a child with trisomy18 was 1-2000, but the test came back as a 1-100 chance that my baby had trisomy 18, a positive result for the test...

I took the news well until I looked up trisomy 18. LOL But luckliy that is very easy to confirm with a Level 2 US. CHild was fine.

I am a beleiver in this test. Yes, it does cause some fretting, but ya know... if my child was born with Trisomy 18 and everyone was cluesless... that would have been much worse.

((((hugs)))) to you friend.

 

[alabamaalan]

Still, you don't want to tell your friend that all of these are false positives; it could be a true indicator.

Nevertheless, there certainly do seem to be a lot of false positives.

With our last child, an initial blood screening indicated a possibility for Down's, so they did the triple screening which indicated Down's as well.

We did not do an amnio for confirmation because it would have served no purpose other than letting us know in advance and was not worth the risk of having the procedure done. A lady at church had lost her baby shortly before then due to the loss of amniotic fluid caused by an amnio.

Of course, such losses may be rare, but definitely not worth the risk.

We never told our families about the tests, but were a bit worried about it. The doctors did let us know that false positives are common as it was in this case.