Tests required to rule out Ectopic Pregnancy -Dr. Teena S Thomas

Ectopic pregnancy is pregnancy anywhere outside the uterus. So if it is outside the uterus it can be in any part of the tubes, it can be in the myometrium, in the cervix, in the mouth of the uterus or it can be in the ovary or in the abdomen rarely it has also been found in the abdomen. So when a pregnancy is not seen within the uterus, when the pregnancy test is positive, either on urine or blood, the beta hCG has come positive, but there is no intrauterine pregnancy seen on the scan , then definitely an ectopic pregnancy has to be ruled out or before that only the patient comes with anything, ectopic pregnancy is a medical emergency and has to be appropriately at this time ruled out. So how do you detect an ectopic pregnancy? You get a beta hCG test done. So beta human chorionic gonadotropin is a blood tests which you do and this test you have to repeat 48 hours later. So if it is a normal viable pregnancy, after 48 hours the beta hCG is usually doubles, but for ectopic pregnancy, we may just find a 60% rise. That is one way of seeing an ectopic pregnancy. But once we see that value, we have to pick it up on the scan. Scan usually you can pick it up after a beta hCG of 1000 or atleast 3000, you can definitely pick up a pregnancy somewhere, so it definitely has to be picked up in a scan. So once you do a beta hCG alternate day every 48 hours and you go ahead with a scan and conform if it is an ectopic pregnancy and can do a medical or a surgical management as the ectopic pregnancy’s size and parameters are.