Abstract： Objective To compare the level of serum vascular epithelial growth factor (VEGF) in patients with fallopian pregnancy and healthy controls with premature intrauterine pregnancy,and to examine the association between magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) features of fallopian pregnancy and the level of VEGF.Methods Thirty-one patients with pathology-diagnosed fallopian pregnancy [menopausal period:(40.5±7.1) days] and 30 healthy controls with premature intrauterine pregnancy pending to receive artificial abortion [menopausal period:(37.9±6.4) days] in the out-patient and in-patient departments of The Third Affiliated Hospital,Guangzhou Medical College between January 2010 and June 2011 were randomly recruited.Fasting venous blood was sampled at day 2 following confirmation of the diagnosis of pregnancy,which entailed assessment of VEGF by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).The 31 patients with fallopian pregnancy underwent plain and contrast-enhanced pelvic MRI preoperatively for determination of the association between MRI features and VEGF.Results Patients with fallopian pregnancy yielded a significantly higher level of serum VEGF [(289.2±45.3) ng/L vs (19.1±6.3) ng/L,P＜0.05] than those with premature intrauterine pregnancy.Serum VEGF concentration was associated with the size of the ectopic gestational sacs,the volume of hemorrhage,the extent of enhancement and presence of uterine decidual hydrops (all P＜0.05),but not associated with the location of fallopian pregnancy and pelvic hydrops (both P＞0.05).Conclusion The level of serum VEGF in fallopian pregnancy is significantly higher than that in early intrauterine pregnancy and is associated with the size of ectopic gestational sacs,volume of hemorrhage,enhancement and presence of uterine decidual hydrops.