Human chorionic gonadotrophin β-subunit in normal and abnormal early pregnancy

Some endocrinological events associated with early pregnancy failure

Serial measurements of serum progesterone, oestradiol, human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG) and human placental lactogen (hPL) have been determined in 33 women experiencing early pregnancy failure and compared with the values of the same hormones in 72 healthy women having uncomplicated pregnancies. Steroid production by the corpus luteum seemed similar in both groups up to 6 weeks gestation but thereafter placental steroidogenesis was not evident in those women in whom spontaneous pregnancy losses occurred. Placental production of the two protein hormones, hCG and hPL, did take place, and whereas the circulating levels were not as high as in normal pregnancies, levels did usually increase before clinical evidence of miscarriage occurred. hCG was not a sensitive discriminator of subsequent failure. In these women there were no significant hormone differences between those with evidence of a fetus and those without.

Accurate assessment of early gestational age in normal and diabetic women by serum human placental lactogen concentration

Serum human placental lactogen (hPL) and human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) were assayed and fetal crown-rump length (CRL) was determined by sonar in three groups of pregnant women--35 with uncomplicated pregnancies, 13 with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, and 21 who represented a general pregnancy population. Each patient had a regular cycle and recorded last menstrual period, ovulated spontaneously, and was delivered of a single live baby. Serum hPL concentrations within the range 0.01-0.80 microU/ml in patients in the first group gave estimates of gestation with an SD of 6.3 days which was the same as the SD derived from CRL measurements. When the hPL regression equation was applied to the diabetic mothers the difference between the gestational age estimated from hPL and that estimated from LMP had a mean value of - 0.9 days with an SD of 6.2 days; this difference was not significantly different from zero. The third group of patients had a mean difference between hPL and LMP derived gestational age of 0.7 days (+/- 6.7 SD). Serum hPL offers a method of estimating gestation sufficiently precise to be used as a practical alternative to sonar measurements of CRL.