DNA aneuploidy in ectopic pregnancy and spontaneous abortions

The nuclear DNA content of 55 ectopic tubal pregnancies was studied by flow cytometry from paraffin embedded tissue blocks. An abnormal amount of DNA content was found in 24% of the cases. This was a significantly higher percentage than encountered in 92 spontaneous abortions studied by the same method in the same population (8%, P = 0.01). The result indicates that, in addition to the maternal factors, abnormal embryogenesis with grave chromosomal aberrations may play a major role in the etiology of ectopic pregnancy.