The appearance and development of embryonic cardiac activity was studied in early human pregnancies using transvaginal and transabdominal sonography combined with pulsed Doppler and M-mode, and serum beta-human chorionic gonaditropin (β-hCG)
level
was
measured serially by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Heart rate was measured in 156 embryos; of these, 149 continued beyond 13 weeks gestation and 7 ended in first-trimester spontaneous abortion. Based on the continuing pregnancies,
we
constructed and compared embryonic heart rate (HER) nomograms relating to gestational age, mean diameter of gestational sac (GSD), crown-rump length (CRL), mean diameter of yolk sac (YSD) and embryonic heart size (EHS).
@ES The results were as follows;
@EN 1. EHR was correlated best with CRL (R=0.674) and others were GSD (R=0.617), YSD (R=0.516), Gestational age (R=0.447), EHS (R=0.391), β-Hcg (r=0.384).
2. Heartbeat was identifiable in all cases at CRL of 3mm.
3. In the cases of identifiable heartbeat at CRL of less than 3mm, mean HER was 102±6 beat/min, mean GSD was 3.6±0.4mm, mean EHS was 0.9±0.2mm and mean serum fβ-hCG level was 43,537±14,198 mIU/ml.
4. HER was increased progressively to 179±10 beats/min. at CRL of 23mm and decreased thereafter.
5. The HER of the 7 embryos that spontaneously aborted in the first trimester evaluated according to nomogram. In 6 cases, the HER fell outside the 95% confidence inter val for CRL (sensitivity-86%)
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