Teaching Points
- Transvaginal and abdominal US combined with the measurement of serum β-hCG are the investigations of choice for suspected ectopic pregnancy
- In a small proportion of cases the TVUS may be non-diagnostic. Follow up of these patients is dependant on the value of the quantitative β-hCG -
- A β-hCG > 1500 IU should proceed to laparoscopy
- A β-hCG < 1500 IU should be repeated in 48hrs if the patient is clinically stable, expecting a rise of > 66%.
- A normal US does not exclude an ectopic pregnancy
File Formats
Some documents for download on this website are in a Portable Document Format (PDF). To read these files you might need to download Adobe® Acrobat Reader.
