THURSDAY, Feb. 9 (HealthDay News) -- Low levels of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) very early in a pregnancy are linked to an increased risk of miscarriage after the pregnancy is clinically recognized, according to a study in the February issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology.
Stephen Tong, Ph.D., of Monash Medical Centre in Victoria, Australia, and colleagues studied 1,054 women who underwent in vitro fertilization and achieved an ultrasound-confirmed live singleton pregnancy with cardiac activity.
The researchers found the overall risk of miscarriage was 11.1 percent and the median gestational age at diagnosis was 10 weeks and four days. The median day 16 hCG level in the miscarriage group (182 mIU/mL) was significantly lower than that in women with an ongoing pregnancy (223 mIU/mL), the researchers found.
An increased risk of miscarriage was associated with decreased hCG levels, the researchers conclude.
"Low hCG levels in very early pregnancy are associated with an increased risk of miscarriage occurring after the clinical recognition of pregnancy," the authors write. "The mechanisms underlying late first-trimester and second-trimester miscarriages may have begun as early as the first week of implantation."
Abstract
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