Short Communication
Year: 2020 | Month: April-June | Volume: 5 | Issue: 2 | Pages: 447-454
Proposed Updated Guidelines for Diagnosis of Pregnancy of Unknown Location (PUL)
Maged MN1, Mohamed MN2, Lamia H. Shehata3
1Mazahmiya Hospital, Ministry of Health, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,
2Department of Obs/Gyn, King Fahd Hospital, Ministry of Health, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,
3Department of Surgery, Consultant Endoscopic Surgery, Department of Radiology, Care National Hospital .KSA
Corresponding Author: Maged MN
ABSTRACT
Early diagnosis of an extra-uterine pregnancy is important for safe and effective management. However, a pregnancy's location often cannot be easily determined with abnormal implantations or prior to 5-6 weeks’ gestation. Multiple testing strategies exist to diagnose an abnormal pregnancy when location is unknown, but caution needs to be used to avoid a false diagnosis. Medical treatment is optimal when an abnormal pregnancy is diagnosed early. Because most of these pregnancies are intrauterine, additional testing to localize the pregnancy will allow the correct choice of therapy and avoids unnecessary exposure to a toxic therapy should be reserved for patients with significant concern for ectopic pregnancy, based on either risk factors or clinical findings.
Updating guidelines, to include MRI and new biomarkers, is required to define early location of pregnancy (intrauterine or extra uterine) and condition (healthy and unhealthy) pregnancy.
Keywords: (Ectopic pregnancy; MRI, Ultrasonography; Biomarkers; B-hCG; Progesterone).