We have just had our week 20 scan and my baby girl has bilateral CPC cysts. how worried should i be and if there are gone by week 26 does this mean that my baby is going to be ok?

CPC's stand for choroid plexus cysts and like any cysts they are fluid filled sacs which happen to be within the choroid plexus, which is part of the fetal brain which produces the cerebro-spinal fluid (CSF). They are seen in approxinmately 1% of ultrasound scans performed at 20 weeks. The general concensus is that they are considered to be part of the normal part of the development of the baby's brain. The fact that they are not seen on all seconnd trimester ultrasound scans is due to the timing of the scan as some people have a scan bang on 20 weeks others 19 or 21weeks. In almost all cases these cysts will disappear shortly after the 20 week scan, very feware seen in the neonate and if they are they mean nothing and they do eventually regress. A cyst like any cyst anywhere else in the body will cause no harm, the worry is that it is in the baby's brain it is scaremongering for parents thinking about development abnormailities and mental retardation. This is definitely not the case.. The size of the cyst or number of cysts makes no difference.

The reason CPCs are reported to parents in some hospitals is due to its lose association with a syndrome called Edwards syndrome. Research has shown that baby's born with Edwards syndrome are reported to have CPC's in the majority of cases, but along with this fetuses with Edwards syndrome have multiple, head, limb and heart abnormailites, the complications are so severe that they would not be missed by a trained operator.

CPC's are reported to parents along with this loose associaton with Edwards syndrome to give the parents the opportunity to decide if they want to have an amniocentesis to see if the fetus uis affected. In isolation the fetus still could be affected but this is doubtful and the presence of these cysts is more likely to be due to normal development and of no siginificance.

I am an experienced ultrasonographer and proud new mum and I have detected CPC's on hundreds of scans and in all cases the babies have been completely normal and healthy.

Best wishes - don't let it ruin your pregnancy

Some hospitals ultra sound tecnicians see these cysts so often at the 20 weeks scan that they do not mention it to the parents - as nearly all these cysts will have gone by the time a later scan is done. If you were given very little information from the person who did your scan, I would ask to speak to one of the midwives at the hospital so you can gather more information. Lizzie