What is Pregnancy Test?

A pregnancy test is used determine if a woman is pregnant or not

nowadays. Today, we know that any test that detects the hormone,
human chorionic gonadotrophin (HGC) will offer the quickest and
most accurate solution for determining if you have a baby on the way.
HCG is secreted by the placenta right after a fertilized egg implants in
the uterus and this hormone will show up in both your urine and in
your blood. Urine pregnancy tests are great for convenient home use;
but your doctor may opt to use urine or blood, as the latter can provide
a "quantitative" HCG number. Both methods are quite reliable, highly
accurate.

History of Pregnancy Test

The ancient Egyptians considered a woman's urine to be the best

source for prognosticating a pregnancy. They were purported to mix
urine with various grains (if the grains germinated, you had a positive
result, and depending on which grain germinated, you could also
determine the gender: a two-in-one pregnancy and gender test.)

The Middle Ages brought us slightly more empirical techniques, though

the science was still off a bit. Various physicians would closely analyze
(describe) a urine sample or mix it with wine or alcohol to determine a
pregnancy result.

The Age of Reason brought more rational and scientific approaches to

detecting pregnancy. Doctors still analyzed urine they focused on the
presence of bacteria or crystalline structures.

The 20th Century led to the discovery of human chorionic

gonadotropin hormone, or HCG, around 1925. Here, significant
amounts of HCG were only found in pregnant women, meaning that
science had finally found a reliable, empirical marker (or detectable
substance) that could be used for testing purposes.

By the early 1970's, a woman could collect a urine sample at home

and either bring it to the doctor for analysis or send it via mail to a
laboratory. This of course, changed, and the first home pregnancy test
hit the market in the late 70s. Nevertheless, a woman was still required
to mix her urine with solutions using test tubes - and the procedure
was still rather complex, requiring a few hours for the result to appear.
From here, improvements were made throughout the 1980s and 90s,
and pretty soon the "home chemistry" mixing-mess was ancient
history, as well. Tests were created in one-step formats in which the
testing reagent could be contained on a single "strip" - and situated
within a hand-held applicator. Urine would be absorbed through the
test - through the anti-HCG antibodies - and across a control line (color
band) that would appear if the test was used properly. A color band or
plus sign, etc, in the test area of the strip would indicate a positive
result with ten minutes or so. Test sensitivity also increased.

Digital pregnancy tests were the first innovations of the 21st century,
along with clinical-style testing strips that are both highly accurate
(offering early-detection) and quite affordable.

How Do Pregnancy Tests Work?

If your egg was fertilized by your partners sperm, the fertilized egg will
travel into the uterus and implant in the uterine lining. When this
occurs, the fertilized egg then starts secreting the pregnancy hormone
called human chorionic gonadotrophin (HCG).

What is HCG?

Human chorionic gonadotrophin (HCG) is a glycoprotein hormone

produced in pregnancy that is made by the developing embryo after
conception and later by the syncytiotrophoblast (part of the placenta).
Its role is to prevent the disintegration of the corpus luteum of the
ovary and thereby maintain progesterone production that is critical for
a pregnancy in humans. HCG may have additional functions; for
instance, it is thought that HCG affects the immune tolerance of the
pregnancy. Early pregnancy testing, in general, is based on the
detection or measurement of HCG. On the other hand, HCG is
produced also by some kinds of tumor, it is an important tumor marker
especially (with clinical significance) in Gestational trophoblastic
disease, but it is not known whether this production is a contributing
cause or an effect of tumorigenesis.

Structure

Human chorionic gonadotropin is a glycoprotein composed of 244

amino acids with a molecular mass of 36.7 kDa. Its total dimensions
are 75×35×30 Ångströms (7.5×3.5×3 nanometers).
It is heterodimeric, with an α (alpha) subunit identical to that of
luteinizing hormone (LH), follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), thyroid-
stimulating hormone (TSH), and β (beta) subunit that is unique to HCG.

* The α (alpha) subunit is 92 amino acids long and has dimensions

60×25×15 Ångströms (6×2.5×1.5 nm).

* The β-subunit of HCG gonadotropin contains 145 amino acids and

has dimensions 6.5×2.5×2 nm, encoded by six highly-homologous
genes that are arranged in tandem and inverted pairs on chromosome
19q13.3 - CGB (1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8).

How the Tests Actually Work?

The pregnancy tests on the market today are manufactured with

monoclonal antibodies that detect minute traces of HCG.

When you take a home pregnancy test, you need to soak a portion of
the test in your urine. As your urine moves into the testing area which
is a line marker, it will tell you if you’re pregnant or not. This line is
caused by the HCG in your urine reacts with the monoclonal
antibodies, creating a distinct color change. The color of this line will
vary in intensity based on how much HCG is in your urine.

Some kits are also available for the general public to use for example;
the home pregnancy test is based on the ELISA principle and detects
the presence of a hormone known as human chorionic gonadotrophin
(HCG) which is excreted in the urine of a pregnant woman.

What is ELISA?

Enzyme-Linked ImmunoSorbent Assay. It can measure certain

hormone levels such as HCG in the pregnancy test, thyroid hormones.