Neocept: a simple, sensitive urine test of early pregnancy in women undergoing ovulation induction

Fifty-five anovulatory women undergoing hMG-hCG treatment in order to become pregnant had daily first morning urine specimens and blood samples drawn, starting from the 11th postovulatory day. The urine was tested with Neocept and the blood with a radioreceptor assay or a radioimmunoassay for beta-subunits of hCG. Twenty-two of the women became pregnant. The pregnancies were detected by Neocept within a span of 12 to 19 days after ovulation. On the day of the first positive urine test, the mean serum concentration of the beta-subunit of hCG in 17 women was 103 +/- 10.1 (S.D.) mIU/ml (range, 39 to 200), and the mean serum level of 5 women tested by the radioreceptor assay was 206.5 +/- 6.5 mIU/ml (range, 170 to 220). Of 8 women with a positive urine test on day 15 or sooner, only 1 aborted, whereas 7 of the 14 women who were found thereafter to be positive aborted. None of the treated women who ovulated but did not conceive had a positive urine test. Of these women there were nine with a prolonged luteal phase (18 to 22 days).