Is the NT examination a vaginal or abdominal ultrasound?

Many first-time pregnant mothers don't know what to expect during a NT prenatal checkup. In fact, the NT checkup is a B-ultrasound checkup. So is the NT checkup a vaginal ultrasound or an abdominal ultrasound?

Abdominal ultrasound. Many first-time pregnant mothers do not know what is going on when doing NT prenatal examination. In fact, NT examination is B-ultrasound examination. This does not require holding urine. It is a prenatal examination item based on abdominal examination. It is a test that uses ultrasound to measure the thickness of the nuchal translucency layer. The thickness increases, and the possibility of fetal abnormalities also increases.

The NT test is also one of the diagnostic bases for early Down screening. The purpose of the test is to diagnose chromosomal diseases in the early stages of pregnancy and to detect fetal abnormalities caused by various reasons. Checking the thickness of the fetus's cervical vertebrae through color Doppler ultrasound is a routine physical examination to rule out fetal malformations. If the test result exceeds 3mm, it often indicates poor fetal outcome. It is of utmost importance to record it, which will help remind the doctor to pay special attention during the mid-to-late stage Down syndrome screening (16-18 weeks) and four-dimensional color ultrasound (24 weeks) fetal anomaly screening examinations.

Why should the NT test be done before 13 weeks?

The nuchal translucency refers to the thickness of the fluid accumulation in the subcutaneous tissue behind the fetus's neck. Before 14 weeks, some normal upper limb lymph nodes of some embryos may have temporary flow obstruction and temporary thickening of the transparent layer.

Around 14 weeks, after the upper and lower lymphatic vessels of the embryo are connected with the jugular sinus, the transparent layer gradually softens and disappears. The thickening of the nuchal transparent layer is often closely related to various congenital abnormalities of the fetus, such as chromosomal abnormalities, endocrine abnormalities, etc. Therefore, as an effective test indicator, accurate measurement of the thickness of the nuchal translucency has been widely used in screening for fetal chromosomal abnormalities.