Quad 4 Results

Well we got the Quad 4 results last Thursday and well it was a mixed result test.  The results are mostly informational and this is just a screening.  If you want specifics about the test  you can follow this link http://www.americanpregnancy.org/prenataltesting/quadscreen.html .  However to explain my results I am going to give you a shorter than cliff notes version. As you have figured out already the Quad 4 screens for 4 things:  Down Syndrome, Trisomy 18 (another genetic disorder I am not familiar with), spina bifida, and placenta problems.  To check for placenta problems it looks at your hCG hormone levels and mine were a little higher than normal but not high enough to be of worry.  They look at the AFP Protein level to check for spina bifida and down syndrome.  If the AFP protein is above 2.5 then that points towards possible spina bifida but if it is below 1.0 then that could point toward down syndrome or another chromosomal disorder.  Mine was 1.41 which is in the normal range.  My risk factors for Trisomy 18 were normal.

For down syndrome they look at the patterns in the proteins as well as factors such as age and ethnicity.  For someone my age the normal ratio is 1 in a 1000 however my risk is elevated to 1 in 83.  Sounds terrible right?!  But really it still means there is only 1 to 1.5% chance the baby could have down syndrome and a 98.5 to 99% chance the baby could not have down syndrome.  There are also positive factors about Baby Pangan that point to this NOT being the case.  The 1st being that my AFP protein did not fit the pattern and was normal.  The biggest is that the nasal bone is a key indicator that the baby is good.  Baby Pangan has a well developed nasal bone which greatly decreases the chances that he or she has down syndrome.  For more information on this check out this article http://www.webmd.com/baby/news/20021217/fetal-nasal-bone-predicts-down-syndrome. Another thing that the genetic counselor said could cause results like this is a small baby!  Babies that are smaller can have protein patterns that mimic problems.  And we know Baby Pangan is smaller than he or she is supposed to be!

There are a lot of things that go through your mind about this.  It is nice information to have and my mind is at ease more knowing this information even if it wasn't the 1 in 10,000 I was looking for on everything!   On Web MD when you look up Quad 4 Screening it says this:  Out of 1,000 pregnant women, approximately 50 will have quad marker screen results that indicate an increased risk for having a baby with a birth defect. Of those 50 women, only one or two will actually have a baby with an open neural tube defect. About 40 women will have quad marker screen results that show an increased risk for having a baby with Down syndrome and one or two will actually have a baby with Down syndrome. (Link to Article on Web MD)  I think that it really puts it in perspective.

So why test you ask?!  Well for a lot of reasons.  We decided to have the test because well there is a family history with my mom's sister who passed when she was not even a year old of hydrocephalus and possible spina bifida.  It was the 1950's and they didn't know about shunts back then.  We didn't do it with Nisee because she was always growing properly and there wasn't anything that presented to be wrong.  We also tested because well I always feel like the more information I have the better decisions I can make and the better decisions I can make the better off I am.  The question of amniocentesis kept coming up and since the presents the greatest risk to the baby that we would get as much information as possible before deciding to do that.  From the beginning I told Chad that there would have to be like a 1 in 4 chance that the baby would have down syndrome or a high high risk of spina bifida for me to risk an amniocentesis.  Well since both those are out we are pretty much just down to waiting for the last ultrasound.

My follow up ultrasound is Wednesday June 8th at with WFU Baptist Fetal Medicine.  They really wanted to do a time lapsed ultrasound both preformed at their location.  This will really be the determining factor as to what is going on.  I was measuring at 16 weeks 5 days on May 18th and I should be measuring at 19 weeks 5 days when I go back this Wednesday.  They will also be able to see the babies heart and spine better than before.  They looked ok before but they couldn't get clear images of them so they will be checking those again.  So as long as baby has grown about 3 weeks worth over the last 3 weeks then we are good.  If we go in and baby is measuring significantly smaller or larger then we will be in a whole new boat and who knows from there.

This is where we sit right now.  Praying that this ultrasound is going to show our baby to have grown 3 weeks and that all is well.  They can issue me a due date and continue to monitor his or her growth.  It is hard to stay all strong and not freak out but I just try to remind myself that we don't have anything to freak out about yet and so far we are getting nothing but good news!  Thanks again for the all prayers between our loving friends and family and our awesome God we know we can make it through this no matter what the outcome is!