Detection of unknown early pregnancy

Abstract
Treatment of a female patient, especially under emergency conditions, may be undertaken without knowledge of whether she is pregnant. The potentially adverse consequences of such treatment make early, reliable detection of pregnancy important to patients, their progeny, and physicians. The authors therefore suggest that all patients of childbearing age be screened with serum human chorionic gonadotropin tests, which are simple and reliable and may detect a pregnancy that is only days old.