Is a blood test for pregnancy more accurate than a urine test?
The latest research presented at Scientific Assembly of the American College of Emergency Physicians revealed that almost six percent of negative urine pregnancy tests can be false that is negative, meaning the women is indeed pregnant despite a negative urine pregnancy test. Initially, the researchers had expected to find urine pregnancy tests as accurate as blood tests. The research was done in 662 women at Henry Ford Hospital who received both urine and serum human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) tests for pregnancy. Six out of the 102 women results, tested negative with the urine pregnancy test, yet their blood pregnancy test indicated they were indeed pregnant. Five of these women with false negative tests had serum hCG levels in the range 11 to 97 mU/ml, which is normal for the first month of pregnancy. Though researchers caution that these false negative numbers may be higher than what is actually found in practice, Henry Ford Hospital now uses blood pregnancy tests as the standard
A pregnancy blood test or a pregnancy serum test is a test that measures the exact amount of the pregnancy hormone, human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), in the bloodstream of a woman to detect pregnancy. Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) is a hormone that is produced by the placenta of a pregnant woman. It is detectable in the blood and urine within 10 days of fertilization. There are two types of blood pregnancy tests, namely, quantitative blood test which measures the exact amount of hCG in the blood and qualitative hCG blood test which gives a simple yes or no answer to whether you are pregnant or not.
