Value of serum progesterone for ectopic pregnancy in therapeutic effect monitoring]

OBJECTIVE: To study the value of serum progesterone in selecting the candidate patients with ectopic pregnancy (EP) for methotrexate (MTX) treatment and in monitoring the effect of the treatment. METHODS: Thirty-seven EP patients who were given single-dose intramuscular injection with 50 mg/m2 MTX were divided into success and failure groups according to the effect of the treatment. The serum progesterone concentrations in these patients were measured and compared between the 2 groups, and the receiver-operator curves (ROC) were used to determine the critical serum progesterone levels for assessing the effect of MTX treatment. The time consumed respectively by serum progesterone and beta-human chorionic gonadotrophin (beta-hCG) decreasing to below normal level was also compared. RESULTS: The serum progesterone concentrations of the success group (7.93+/-2.02 ng/ml) were significantly lower than those of the failure group (14.53+/-1.72 ng/ml, P<0.05). The recommended critical level for assessing the effect of MTX treatment for EP patients was 11 ng/ml according to the ROC, and the time for serum progesterone decreasing to below normal level was significantly less than that for beta-hCG. CONCLUSION: Serum progesterone can be used as an index for selecting candidate EP patients for MTX treatment, and also as a good indicator for assessing the therapeutic effect after treatment.