Hum. Reprod. Advance Access originally published online on June 21, 2006
Human Reproduction 2006 21(10):2706-2710; doi:10.1093/humrep/del223
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
There is no role for uterine curettage in the contemporary diagnostic workup of women with a pregnancy of unknown location
1 Early Pregnancy, Gynaecological Ultrasound and MAS Unit, St Georges Hospital Medical School, London, UK 2 Department of Electrical Engineering (ESAT), Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and 3 Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University Hospital Gasthuisberg, K.U.Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
4 To whom correspondence should be addressed at: Early Pregnancy, Gynaecological Ultrasound and MAS Unit, St Georges Hospital Medical School, Cranmere Terrace, London SW17 0RE, UK. E-mail: gcondous{at}hotmail.com
| Abstract |
|---|
|
|
|---|
BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to generate and evaluate a new protocol that defined non-viability in the pregnancy of unknown location (PUL) population and therefore ensured no viable intra-uterine pregnancy (IUP) would be interrupted if uterine curettage was performed. A secondary aim was to evaluate published biochemical criteria that define non-viability in a PUL population to establish if these criteria could result in inadvertent termination of pregnancy (TOP) if uterine curettage was performed. METHODS: All clinically stable women classified as having a PUL were included in this study. Protocol 1 was developed retrospectively based on data from 500 consecutive PULs. Using this protocol, no cases of viable IUPs would undergo uterine curettage and the potential for TOP was eliminated. This protocol was then validated prospectively on the data from a further 503 consecutive PULs. Results were then compared with three established criteria (Protocols 24) for the use of uterine curettage as a diagnostic tool to classify the location of PULs. Protocol 2 defined non-viability when the hCG ratio (hCG at 48 h/hCG at 0 h) was
1.66; Protocol 3 advised uterine curettage at serum hCG levels of
2000 U/l or when the initial serum hCG was <2000 U/l with a serum hCG rise of <35% over 48 h (hCG ratio <1.35); Protocol 4 advised uterine curettage with a serum hCG rise of <50% over 48 h (hCG ratio <1.50). The number of uterine curettages performed and viable IUPs that would have undergone an unplanned TOP were recorded for all protocols. RESULTS: A total of 12 572 consecutive women were scanned: 1003 (8.0%) women were classified as PULs. Training set consisted of 500 PULs: 278 (55.6%) failing PULs, 176 (35.2%) IUPs and 46 (9.2%) ectopic pregnancies (EPs). Test set consisted of 503 PULs: 255 (50.7%) failing PULs, 203 (40.4%) IUPs and 45 (9.0%) EPs. Protocol 1 when developed retrospectively on the training set would have resulted in 293 uterine curettages and no potential TOP. Protocol 1 tested prospectively on 503 PULs would have resulted in 272 uterine curettages and no potential TOP. Three established criteria were tested on the entire data set (n = 1003). Protocol 2 would have resulted in 114 uterine curettages and 14 (12.3%) potential TOPs; Protocol 3 would have led to 611 uterine curettages and seven (1.2%) potential TOPs; Protocol 4 would have resulted in 617 uterine curettages and three (0.5%) potential TOPs. No harm came to the women whose EP diagnosis was delayed. CONCLUSIONS: Established criteria for the use of uterine curettage in the management of PULs, including those advocated by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM), can theoretically result in an inadvertent TOPs. On the basis of these data, a change in contemporary clinical practice should be considered to avoid further damage to wanted pregnancies. We conclude that uterine curettage should not be used in the routine diagnostic workup of women with a PUL.
Key words: pregnancy of unknown location/termination of pregnancy/transvaginal ultrasound/uterine curettage
| Introduction |
|---|
|
|
|---|
As more pregnant women present at earlier gestations to the Emergency Department or to Early Pregnancy Units (EPUs), the number of women with no signs of an extra- or intra-uterine pregnancy (IUP) on transvaginal ultrasound scan (TVS) may also increase. These women are classified as having a pregnancy of unknown location (PUL). In many centres, the diagnosis of an ectopic pregnancy (EP) in a PUL population is based on documenting that there is no IUP. Uterine curettage is used as a diagnostic tool to differentiate an EP from a miscarriage in women with a PUL (Barnhart et al., 2002
According to Barnhart et al., the presumption that there is an EP present when there is no evidence of an IUP on TVS is not justified. In a recent study, this presumption was inaccurate in almost 40% of cases (Barnhart et al., 2002
). The authors in this study concluded that uterine curettage was necessary to differentiate EP from miscarriage to more accurately select woman for medical management of EP.
Before performing this invasive test, one must be certain that the pregnancy is non-viable (Carson and Buster, 1993
; Pisarska et al., 1998
). There are many different biochemical thresholds that can be used to define non-viability in an early pregnancy. These are based on the sub-optimal rise in serum hCG over 48 h, absolute levels of progesterone of
15.9 nmol/l at presentation or even varying discriminatory zones for serum hCG levels (Kadar and Romero, 1988
; Stovall et al., 1990
; Stovall et al., 1992
; Mol et al., 1998
; Barnhart et al., 2002
).
The question is whether there is a role for the use of uterine curettage in the contemporary diagnostic workup of women with a PUL. The aim of this study was to generate and evaluate a new protocol that defined non-viability in the PUL population and therefore would ensure no viable pregnancy would be interrupted if uterine curettage was performed. A secondary aim was to evaluate published biochemical criteria that define non-viability in a PUL population to determine if these criteria could result in inadvertent termination of pregnancy (TOP) if uterine curettage was performed.
| Materials and methods |
|---|
|
|
|---|
We undertook a non-interventional prospective observational study of pregnant women attending the EPU at St Georges Hospital, London, between 25 June 2001 and 9 October 2004. All pregnant women who presented to the EPU underwent a TVS, using a 5 MHz probe (Aloka SSD 900, 2000 or 4000; Keymed Ltd, Southend, UK and Aloka Co. Ltd., Tokyo, Japan). All clinically stable women classified as having a PUL were included in the final analysis. A PUL was defined on the basis of the initial TVS as there being no signs of either an IUP or extra-uterine pregnancy or retained products of conception, in a woman with a positive urinary pregnancy test (Condous et al., 2004b
If any of the following were present on TVS, these women were excluded from the PUL population:
- visualization of any evidence of an intra-uterine sac at the first ultrasound scan;
- identification of an adnexal mass thought to be an EP at the initial ultrasound scan;
- those with an endometrial thickness of >15 mm on TVS with the presence of heterogeneous, irregular tissues within the uterus thought to be an incomplete miscarriage or
- women who were clinically unstable or had a haemoperitoneum according to the scan images.
All women classified as having a PUL were followed up with serum hCG measurements, TVS and/or laparoscopy until the final clinical outcomes were established. The outcomes included a failing PUL, an IUP, an EP or a persisting PUL. These diagnoses were established using the criteria described in previous studies published by this unit (Condous et al., 2004a
,b; Condous et al., 2005a
,b,c,d,e; Condous et al., 2006
; Kirk et al., 2006
). The persisting PULs almost certainly represent ultrasonically missed EPs, and as they behaved biochemically like EPs, they were incorporated into the EP group in the final analysis.
Study design
This was a retrospective development of a protocol, followed by a prospective trial. The data set was split into two sets according to the data collection time: one was called the model-building or training data set and the other was called the validation or test data set. The initial model-building data set was collected from 25 June 2001 until 15 April 2003 (n = 500 consecutive women with a PUL). The subsequent validation data set was collected at the same unit, from 16 April 2003 until 9 October 2004 (n = 503 consecutive women classified as having a PUL).
A new protocol, Protocol 1, was developed based on the use of uterine curettage as a diagnostic tool to differentiate EP from miscarriage in women with no signs of an extra-uterine pregnancy or IUP on TVS, i.e. a PUL. Protocol 1 was weighted to ensure that no cases of viable IUPs underwent uterine curettage, and therefore the potential for TOP was eliminated. Protocol 1 was developed on retrospective analysis of the model-building data from the first 500 consecutive PULs. In this protocol, stable women with a PUL and serum hCG level of
2000 U/l in conjunction with a serum progesterone level of <45 nmol/l at presentation can have uterine curettage performed to establish the location of the PUL withoust interrupting an ongoing IUP. Similarly, stable women with serum hCG levels of <2000 U/l at presentation and an hCG ratio (hCG at 48 h/hCG at 0 h) of
1.15, i.e. serum hCG rise of
15% over 48 h, can also have uterine curettage without interrupting an ongoing IUP. This protocol was then validated prospectively on the data set of the next 503 consecutive women with PULs who attended the department.
Model validation
Split sample analysis gives overly pessimistic estimates of a models performance, with large variability (Steyerberg et al., 2001
). To make use of the data more efficiently and check the bias and variability of the results, we also have validated Protocol 1 using the regular bootstrap sampling technique (Efron and Tibshirami, 1993
). In particular, 1000 bootstrap samples were drawn with replacement from the original data set (with 1003 patient data), and the proportion of the outcome was kept the same in each bootstrap sample as in the original data set.
The performance of Protocol 1 was then compared with the established criteria that use uterine curettage as a diagnostic tool to classify the location of PULs. The American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) Practice Committee Report (2001) advocates the use of uterine curettage following endocrine documentation that suggests a non-viable pregnancy regardless of its location, i.e. when there is an abnormal rise in serum hCG in early pregnancy of
66% in 48 h (Kadar and Romero, 1988
). For the purposes of this study, Protocol 2 was therefore according to Kadar and Romero and defined non-viability when there was an hCG ratio of
1.66 (Kadar and Romero, 1988
); Protocol 3 was according to Barnhart et al. and advised uterine curettage at serum hCG levels of
2000 U/l or when the initial serum hCG was <2000 U/l with an hCG ratio of <1.35, i.e. a serum hCG rise of <35% over 48 h (Barnhart et al., 2002
); Protocol 4 was according to Stovall et al. and advised a uterine curettage with an hCG ratio of <1.50, i.e. a serum hCG rise of <50% over 48 h (Stovall et al., 1990
). These established protocols were tested on the total PUL population (n = 1003).
Primary outcome
In all the protocols, the number of uterine curettages that would have been performed in the PUL population, and in particular the number of viable pregnancies that would have undergone potential termination, was recorded.
Statistical analyses were performed using the SAS software package, version 9 (Cary, NC, USA).
| Results |
|---|
|
|
|---|
A total of 12 572 consecutive first trimester women were scanned during the study period, of whom 1003 (8%) women were classified as PULs. The mean age and gestation at presentation were 30.2 years and 41.9 days, respectively. The mean serum hCG levels at 0 h and 48 h were 582.2 U/l and 690.2 U/l, respectively. The mean serum progesterone levels at 0 h and 48 h were 34.6 nmol/l and 30.6 nmol/l, respectively (Table I).
|
In the model-building (training) and validation (test) sets, there were 500 and 503 PULs, respectively (Table II).
|
When developed retrospectively, Protocol 1 would have resulted in 293 uterine curettages being performed on the PUL population, resulting in no TOPs (Table III). When Protocol 1 was validated prospectively, 272 uterine curettages would have resulted in no TOPs (Table III).
|
The other three protocols were tested on the total PUL population of 1003 PULs.
The contingency tables for the different protocols on the complete PUL population have been summarized in Table IV. Also reported in Table IV are some performance measures including the sensitivity of each protocol for advising uterine curettage and for detecting potential EPs and the false positive rate for advising uterine curettage in a woman with a viable IUP. For Protocol 1, the bootstrap estimate of the performance measures and their corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI) have been provided as well.
|
Protocol 2 would have resulted in 114 uterine curettages and 14 potential (12.28%) TOPs. Protocol 3 would have resulted in 611 uterine curettages and seven (1.15%) potential TOPs. Protocol 4 would have resulted in 617 uterine curettages and three (0.49%) potential TOPs (Table IV).
| Discussion |
|---|
|
|
|---|
This study clearly demonstrates that uterine curettage should not be used in the routine diagnostic workup of women with a PUL. Current criteria for defining non-viability (Kadar and Romero, 1988
An expectant wait and see approach does not compromise the care of women with a PUL (Cacciatore et al., 1988
; Hahlin et al., 1995
; Hajenius et al., 1995
; Banerjee et al., 1999
; Mol and Van der Veen, 1999
; Banerjee et al., 2001
; Condous et al., 2004a
). In a recent study, we demonstrated that PULs can be safely managed without the need for intervention based on the hCG ratio (Condous et al., 2006
). The use of non-invasive diagnostic techniques including high-resolution TVS in conjunction with serum hCG and progesterone measurements is the cornerstone of management of women with a PUL. (Ankum et al., 1993
; Condous et al., 2003
).
The exception to the use of uterine curettage is in the persisting PUL group, which only accounts for 2% of the total PUL population (Condous et al., 2004b
). The persisting PUL group is defined as those PULs whose serum hCG levels fail to decline, tend to be low (<500 U/l) and have reached a plateau. Under these circumstances, uterine curettage to confirm the absence of chorionic villi is a reasonable management option before giving medical treatment with methotrexate (Condous et al., 2003
).
In units that routinely use uterine curettage in women with a PUL, the lowering of the hCG ratio threshold from 1.5 (i.e. a serum hCG rise of <50% in 48 h) to 1.15 (i.e. a serum hCG rise of
15% in 48 h) would mean adopting an extremely conservative approach. This new hCG ratio threshold may result in failure or delay in the diagnosis of EP because uterine curettage is deferred or delayed. Advocates of uterine curettage might argue that the risk of diagnostic delay in the EP subgroup outweighs the risk of unintentional pregnancy termination. This controversy needs to be addressed. On the one hand, the number of EPs in the complete 1003 PUL set that would have been diagnosed with uterine curettage using the new hCG ratio threshold of 1.15 is 47/91 (51.65%) compared with 71/91 (78.02%) if the hCG ratio threshold had have been 1.5. Therefore, 24 EPs would have had their diagnosis delayed if the new policy was adopted. On the other hand, no ongoing IUPs in the validation set would have been potentially terminated if the new hCG ratio threshold of 1.15 was adopted, whilst three of 24 IUPs with an hCG ratio threshold of 1.5 would have potentially undergone a TOP in an effort to locate the pregnancy. The authors believe that the delay in diagnosing these 24 extra EPs is very unlikely to result in complications, whilst the use of the hCG ratio threshold of 1.5 certainly can cause potential harm to viable IUPs. In a recent study in our unit, the diagnosis of EP in the PUL population was made using TVS at follow-up visits; routine curettage was not used. There were no adverse outcomes in this study (Condous et al., 2005a
). Therefore potential diagnostic delay at this very early stage of pregnancy does not have an impact on the morbidity or mortality in the EP subgroup.
Current strategies for the use of uterine curettage as a diagnostic tool in the management of PUL, including those advocated by the ASRM, are of concern as they are based on an inadequate knowledge of the status of the pregnancy. According to our data, these criteria may lead to performing uterine curettages in women with an ongoing IUP resulting in an inadvertent TOP in 0.512.3% of cases. Furthermore, in most cases, over 50% of the women undergo invasive surgical intervention that they may not require. On the basis of this study, we conclude that there is no role for the routine use of uterine curettage in the diagnostic workup of women with a PUL.
| References |
|---|
|
|
|---|
American Society for Reproductive Medicine Practice Committee Report. (2001) Early diagnosis and management of ectopic pregnancy. ASRM January 14, 2001.
Ankum WM, Van der Veen F, Hamerlynck JV, Lammes FB. (1993) Transvaginal sonography and human chorionic gonadotrophin measurements in suspected ectopic pregnancy: a detailed analysis of a diagnostic approach. Hum Reprod 8:13071311.
Atri M, Valenti DA, Bret PM, Gillett P. (2003) Effect of transvaginal sonography on the use of invasive procedures for evaluating patients with a clinical diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy. J Clin Ultrasound 31:18.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]
Banerjee S, Aslam N, Zosmer N, Woelfer B, Jurkovic D. (1999) The expectant management of women with pregnancies of unknown location. Ultrasound Obstet Gynecol 14:231236.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]
Banerjee S, Aslam N, Woelfer B, Lawrence A, Elson J, Jurkovic D. (2001) Expectant management of early pregnancies of unknown location: a prospective evaluation of methods to predict spontaneous resolution of pregnancy. Br J Obstet Gynaecol 108:158163.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
Barnhart KT, Katz I, Hummel A, Gracia CR. (2002) Presumed diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy. Obstet Gynecol 100:505510.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]
Cacciatore B, Ylostalo P, Stenman UH, Widholm O. (1988) Suspected ectopic pregnancy: ultrasound findings and hCG levels assessed by an immunofluorometric assay. Br J Obstet Gynaecol 95:497502.[Web of Science][Medline]
Cacciatore B, Stenman UH, Ylostalo P. (1990) Diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy by vaginal ultrasonography in combination with a discriminatory serum hCG level of 1000 IU/L (IRP). Br J Obstet Gynaecol 97:904908.[Web of Science][Medline]
Carson SA and Buster JE. (1993) Ectopic pregnancy. N Engl J Med 329:11741181.
Condous G, Okaro E, Bourne T. (2003) The conservative management of early pregnancy complications: a review of the literature. Ultrasound Obstet Gynecol 22:4420430.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]
Condous G, Lu C, Van Huffel S, Timmerman D, Bourne T. (2004a) Human chorionic gonadotrophin and progesterone levels for the investigation of pregnancies of unknown location. Int J Gynaecol Obstet 86:351357.[CrossRef][Medline]
Condous G, Okaro E, Khalid A, Timmerman D, Lu C, Zhou Y, Van Huffel S, Bourne T. (2004b) The use of a new logistic regression model for predicting the outcome of pregnancies of unknown location. Hum Reprod 19:19001910.
Condous G, Okaro E, Khalid A, Lu C, Van Huffel S, Timmerman D, Bourne T. (2005a) A prospective evaluation of a single-visit strategy to manage pregnancies of unknown location. Hum Reprod 20:13981403.
Condous G, Okaro E, Khalid A, Lu C, Van Huffel S, Timmerman D, Bourne T. (2005b) The accuracy of transvaginal ultrasonography for the diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy prior to surgery? Hum Reprod 20:14041409.
Condous G, Okaro E, Khalid A, Bourne T. (2005c) Do we need to follow up complete miscarriages with serum human chorionic gonadotrophin levels? Br J Obstet Gynaecol 112:827829.
Condous G, Kirk E, Syed A, Van Calster B, Van Huffel S, Timmerman D, Bourne T. (2005d) Do levels of serum cancer antigen 125 and creatine kinase predict the outcome in pregnancies of unknown location? Hum Reprod 20:33483354.
Condous G, Kirk E, Lu C, Van Huffel S, Gevaert O, De Moor B, De Smet F, Timmerman D, Bourne T. (2005e) Diagnostic accuracy of varying discriminatory zones for the prediction of ectopic pregnancy in women with a pregnancy of unknown location. Ultrasound Obstet Gynecol 26:770775.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]
Condous G, Kirk E, Van Calster B, Van Huffel B, Timmerman D, Bourne T. (2006) Failing pregnancies of unknown location: a prospective evaluation of the human chorionic gonadotrophin ratio. Br J Obstet Gynaecol 113:521527.
Efron B and Tibshirami RJ. (1993) An Introduction to the Bootstrap(Chapman & Hall, New York, NY).
Hahlin M, Thorburn J, Bryman I. (1995) The expectant management of early pregnancies of uncertain site. Hum Reprod 10:2231227.
Hajenius PJ, Mol BW, Ankum WM, van der Veen F, Bossuyt PM, Lammes FB. (1995) Suspected ectopic pregnancy: expectant management in patients with negative sonographic findings and low serum hCG concentrations. Early Pregnancy 1:258262.[Medline]
Kadar W and Romero R. (1988) Serial human chorionic gonadotropin measurements in ectopic pregnancy. Am J Obstet Gynecol 158:12391241.[Web of Science][Medline]
Kirk E, Condous G, Haider Z, Lu C, Van Huffel S, Timmerman D, Bourne T. (2006) The practical application of a mathematical model to predict the outcome of pregnancies of unknown location. Ultrasound Obstet Gynecol 27:311315.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]
Mol BW and Van der Veen F. (1999) Results of expectant management of women early pregnancy and unknown location. Ultrasound Obstet Gynecol 4:231236.
Mol BW, Hajenius PJ, Engelsbel S, Ankum WM, Van der Veen F, Hemrika DJ, Bossuyt PM. (1998) Serum human chorionic gonadotropin measurement in the diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy when transvaginal scan is inconclusive. Fertil Steril 70:972981.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]
Ollendorff DA, Fejgin MD, Barzilai M, Be-Noon I, Gerbie AB. (1987) The value of curettage in the diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy. Am J Obstet Gynecol 157:7172.[Web of Science][Medline]
Pisarska MD, Carson SA, Buster JE. (1998) Ectopic pregnancy. Lancet 351:11151120.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]
Shalev E, Yarom I, Bustan M, Weiner E, Ben-Shlomo I. (1998) Transvaginal sonography as the ultimate diagnostic tool for the management of ectopic pregnancy: experience with 840 cases. Fertil Steril 69:6265.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]
Steyerberg EW, Harrell FE Jr, Borsboom GJ, Eijkemans MJ, Vergouwe Y, Habbema JD. (2001) Internal validation of predictive models. J Clin Epidemiol 54:774781.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]
Stovall TG, Ling FW, Carson SA, Buster JE. (1990) Nonsurgical diagnosis and treatment of tubal pregnancy. Fertil Steril 54:537538.[Web of Science][Medline]
Stovall TG, Ling FW, Carson SA, Buster JE. (1992) Serum progesterone and uterine curettage in differential diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy. Fertil Steril 57:456458.[Web of Science][Medline]
Submitted on January 18, 2006; resubmitted on April 26, 2006; accepted on May 12, 2006.
![]()
CiteULike
Connotea
Del.icio.us What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
![]() |
H. Sagili and K. Mohamed Pregnancy of unknown location: an evidence-based approach to management Obstet Gynaecol (Lond), October 1, 2008; 10(4): 224 - 230. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
K. T. Barnhart Ultrasound diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy Hum. Reprod., May 1, 2007; 22(5): 1493 - 1493. [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
G. Condous, E. Kirk, and T. Bourne Reply: Ultrasound diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy Hum. Reprod., May 1, 2007; 22(5): 1494 - 1494. [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

