title: Single-dose methotrexate for the treatment of ectopic pregnancy: Our experience from 2010 to 2015.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the success of systemic single-dose methotrexate (MTX) treatment in patients with ectopic pregnancy (EP) and to investigate factors related to treatment success.
  
  
  METHODS
  This retrospective study had been performed in Yildirim Beyazit University between January 2010 and December 2015. Demographic and clinical characteristics, ultrasonografic findings, pretreatment serum β-human chorionic gonadotropin (β-hCG) and progesterone levels of 58 patients with EP were retrieved from hospital records retrospectively. The patients were grouped according to MTX treatment success (responsevs.failure).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Single-dose MTX-treatment was successful in 72.4% (42/58) of patients. The mean pretreatment β-hCG level was significantly lower in responders than in failures (2080 ± 2322vs. 5707 ± 3885 IU/L,p= 0.001), and 2678 IU/L was the most suitable cutoff to predict success (75% sensitivity, 73.8% specificity). Moreover, failure rate was 8.45 times more in group of patients whose β-hCG values were determined above the cutoff. The presence of fetal cardiac activity adversely affected treatment success (odds ratio = 12,p= 0.004). Treatment success was not affected by past history of ectopic pregnancy, thickness of endometrium, progesterone value or presences of pseudosac and free pelvic fluid.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The success rate of single dose MTX in this study was 72.8 %, and we found that failure rate of MTX treatment was 8.45 times more in group of patients whose initial serum β-hCG values were above 2678 IU/L and 12 times more in patients with fetal cardiac activity.
authors.affiliation: Dr. Emre Erdem Tas, Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Yildirim Beyazit University, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Emre Erdem
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: Tas
authors.affiliation: Dr. Gulin Feykan Yegin Akcay, Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Ataturk Education and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Gulin Feykan Yegin
authors.initials: GF
authors.lastname: Akcay
authors.affiliation: Prof. Dr. Ayse Filiz Avsar, Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Yildirim Beyazit University, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Ayse Filiz
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Avsar
keywords: Ectopic pregnancy; Methotrexate; Single injection; β–human chorionic gonadotropin