Fetal Cardiac Scan
The cardiac scan usually confirms that all is well with your baby’s heart. However, the actual heart itself is a very difficult
organ to visualise and can take up to 30 minutes depending upon how the baby is lying in the womb.
Please view this site for the pictures and explanations.
Essentially though, we should be able to pick up major heart problems in over 60% of cases at 14 weeks, 85% at 18 weeks and 90%+
at 23 weeks. Each individual examination is tailored to your needs. For example, if due to a thickened nuchal measurement of 3.5 mm,
your baby has a 1 in 30 chance of significant heart problems. Therefore, you may wish to have the cardiac or heart scan at an earlier
date to reduce the wait until 23 weeks.
For more information about a baby’s heart please visit
http://www.echocharity.org.uk/sonog5vprotocol.html
For a drawing of the heart please look at
http://www.echocharity.org.uk/sonogposter.html
We follow the protocol for examining the baby’s heart as laid out in
http://www.echocharity.org.uk/sonog5vprotocol.html#DETAILS
