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 hCC 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.