My friend, who just turned 35 last month, had a low-risk AFP test earlier this month but had a Level II ultrasound yesterday because of her age. Only one soft indicator for Down Syndrome was found. It is a calcium spot on the heart. I can't find much information relating the occurrence of Downs to this particular soft indicator. Does anyone have any information about this?

I had a level 2 ultra sound that showed a "soft" indicator of Down Syndrome on my daughters heart. I was told after my daughter was born that the "soft" indicator of calcium on the heart is usually an indicator with about 70% accuracy. - I don't know any hard stats for you, just what my daughters doctors told me http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/smile.gif

My wife was told in her 20 weeks ultrasound scan that there was a calcium spot in the baby's heart. We are anxious to know how serious this marker is?

We had a hard time finding hard statistics on the calcium spot on the heart as a Down Syndrome indicator. It is a soft indicator as opposed to a hard indicator. My friend had an amnio the day of her sonogram and it came back negative for Downs. Hope this helps! Good luck!

Hi Shankar,
so did you guys have an amnio test done or not ? It should be done before 24 weeks I guess. Let us know what was the result ?

good luck

There seems to be a severe shortage of information about this topice. I have looked everywhere! I too had a lever Ii ultrasound that indicated nothing more than the calcium spot and I was told that 1 in 5 babies has this anyway. So, now I get to wait a week and a half and wonder....Does anybody know anything about this?? Please email me.

I found this->

Q I'm in my 24th week of pregnancy. Last week's scan of my baby shows some calcium deposit in the baby's heart. What are the implications of this? Mamta
Dear Mamta,

A Calcium can be deposited as an effect or scarring or when there is distortion of tissue growth, as in suspcious calcifications in the breast with some instances of breast cancers.

In ultrasound, cardica "bright spots," such as this, are sometimes associated with Down syndrome. But I wouldn't take this isolated finding as such a diagnosis. I would think many other ultrasound findings would have to be present -- not just this.

Other "calcium deposits" can be harmless or as an abnormality of the hormone which helps to regulate calcium in the blood, parathyroid hormone ("parathormone"). Also, a thyroid hormone, Calcitonin, also helps regulate calcium, so this could be a factor. But if the calcium deposit you see were to be a mess-up with one of these, I would suspect you'd see calcium deposits all over the ultrasound.

More than likely, it's just an insignificant effect of one spot of tissue.

I suppose this could represent some type of damage to the baby's cardiac muscle, but I can't think of a similar situation in my practice. Your doctor can help arrange a fetal echocardiogram, but I'm sure that would have already been considered if there were any real concern. If the baby is otherwise fine and growing well, it's probably nothing.
Dr. Dileo

(I'm not sure if this is a no-no, and I'm trying hard not to mess up again, but I found the above at the following website address-> http://www.babyzone.com/features/expertsqa/default.asp?QAID=447&ExpertID=1