I can add one to that score, what's more she had had a period less than
28 days before she ruptured....though not as heavy as usual she said as
I put up the drip at the second visit...
Any woman who can menstruate with lower abdominal pain can be an
ectopic. Negative tests merely mean the tests are negative. They do not
exclude a diagnosis, but we as didactic teachers find it too easy to
teach people rules rather than probabilities and in doing so encourage
the legal profession in to thinking medicine is a science rather than an
art.
Vic Calland
-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask]
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
[log in to unmask]
Sent: 27 August 2004 11:08
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: UTI's, abdo pain and early pregnancy
"And as far as I'm aware a negative hcg does rule out ectopic, or at
least rules out an ectopic that's going to cause any problems."
Well it depends on what you mean by a negative test. I know of at least
one young woman with a negative BHCG urine who had ruptured an ectopic.
Blood HCG (result available after the operation!) was very weakly +ve.
I'm afraid I don't know the values...
I know n=1 hardly makes for EBM but it does make you a bit edgy
Peter Cutting
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