Tubal mucosa and ectopic pregnancy.

Fallopian tubes containing a gestation are frequently normal on macroscopical and gross histological examination. Scanning electron microscopy and light microscopy studies of tubal biopsies taken from five groups of women showed marked differences in the ciliated surface which was measured planimetrically on photographs. The proportion of ciliated cells was significantly lower in biopsies taken from 25 women with tubal pregnancies compared with that in biopsies from seven women with intrauterine pregnancies at the same gestation. Marked deciliation was also seen in eight women biopsied during tubal surgery sometime subsequent to an ectopic pregnancy and in four women biopsied during tubal surgery who subsequently had a tubal pregnancy when compared with a group of women biopsied during tubal sterilization.