Hemodynamic response of ovarian artery after hCG injection

Abstract We have analyzed ovarian hemodynamics immediately after human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) administration in patients treated by clomiphene-hCG and human menopausal gonadotropin-hCG. This study involved 40 infertile women who signed consents to participate in this study. After intramuscular injection of 10 000 IU hCG, the change of ovarian arterial blood flow (BF) was evaluated by color Doppler. Pulsatility index, resistance index, maximum velocity ( V max ), mean velocity, minimum velocity, cross-sectional area of ovarian artery (Area) and BF were measured before and 15–180 min after hCG administration. In the 36 subjects in which ovulation was induced successfully, V max and BF increased significantly even at 15 min after hCG administration and thereafter. In the 4 non-ovulatory subjects, no significant changes in any of indices at any of measured time points were observed. Comparative study of non-ovulatory and ovulatory subjects suggested that ovulation may be predicted by the ovarian hemodynamic analysis immediately after hCG administration.