wrote:
Hi all,
My wife is pregnant and now her pregnancy is 24 weeks old. This
monday when we went for routine Ultrasound the Biparetal
Diameter/Femur Length ratio has come out to be 2.32 where it should
have been somewhere around 1.5 (BPD is 61mm and FL is 26.3 mm).... Now
my question is will the pregnancy last? or we will have to do an
abortion(pre-mature delivery)? If the pregnancy will held then what
are the chances that the child will live after birth and will not be
effected by Down Syndrome and other deficenies? Please do help me. By
looking at different charts online I have gained that Femur length
should have been close to 45mm in the 24th week. and the cut off
length should have been at least 40mm. Now I am really worried and
before the visit to Gynae I want to get some knowledge from you
people...

Imran

I'm not familiar with the terms that you are using, but based on Anne's
response, it sounds like your baby's femur is measuring shorter than
average, and you are worried about Down Syndrome. The only way to tell if
your baby has DS is to do an amnio. If everything else on your u/s was
normal and looked good, the chances of the pregnancy ending in stillbirth or
miscarrage at this point, based only on the femur length, are virtually
none. Now, whether or not you would chose to terminate this pregnancy based
on the health of your child, that's your choice, but a choice such as that
should not be made on a single finding via u/s -- a shorter than average
femur. While a shorter femur can be a soft sign for DS, it can also be a
"hard sign" of a shorter than average child. : ) Are you and your wife on
the short side or tall side?

If you feel strongly that you need to know if your child has any chromosomal
issues, then you should request an amnio as soon as possible -- it will take
about 2 weeks to get the results back. On the other hand, if the rest of
the u/s finding were normal and good, you might consider just waiting it
out. It's too late (at least in the u/s) to terminate a pregnancy at this
point anyway, and in 2-3 weeks when you get your amnio results back, it will
be even later.

I wish you luck, and hope that your baby is perfectly healthy.
--

Jamie
Earth Angels:
Taylor Marlys, 1/3/03
Addison Grace, 9/30/04

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