Is maternal serum creatine kinase actually a marker for early diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy?

OBJECTIVE

Our purpose was to investigate whether serum creatine kinase (CK) levels could be used as an early marker of ectopic pregnancy. Student's t-test was used for statistical analysis.

STUDY

DESIGN

In a prospective study we therefore measured serum progesterone, beta hCG and CK levels in 30 women with ectopic pregnancies, 30 women with ongoing pregnancies and 30 women with missed abortion.

RESULTS

The mean serum CK concentration for patients with an ectopic pregnancy, ongoing pregnancy, and the women with missed abortion was 81.4 +/- 66.2, 81.5 +/- 40.3, 84.8 +/- 49.3, respectively. No relationship was found between CK level and the location of the pregnancy.

CONCLUSION

Conversely to the first report of Lavie et al. (Am J Obstet Gynecol 1993; 169: 1149), our data suggest that serum CK level is not discriminative in the early diagnosis of tubal pregnancy.