Urinary Oestriol Excretion in Pregnancies Complicated by Suspected Retarded Intrauterine Growth, Toxaemia or Essential Hypertension

Serum Levels of Unconjugated and Total Oestrogens and Dehydroepiandrosterone, Progesterone and Urinary Oestriol Excretion in Pre-Eclampsia

“…1974a;Mathur et ah, 1973;Michie, 1967;Notation and Tagatz, 1977;Roy et ah, 1963;Sybulski and Maughan, 1972;Unnerus, 1979]. The findings prob ably reflect a generally decreased fetoplacen tal oestrogen synthesis in pre-eclampsia.…”

“…1975].The well-known finding of a decreased urinary oestriol excretion in this pathological condi tion is therefore hardly surprising [Frandsen et al, 1970;Jorgensen and Frandsen. 1971;Michie, 1967;Roy et al, 1963;Unnérus, 1979], In contrast to urinary oestriol measure ments, the results from oestriol determina tions in peripheral serum/plasma in pre eclamptic patients are more ambiguous. Most authors report decreased peripheral levels of total oestriol (tE3) in pre-eclampsia; however, no differences or even increased levels have also been reported [Alexander et al, 1979;Dubin et al, 1973;Fischer-Ras mussen, 1972;Mathurex al., 1973;RoyeX al., 1963].…”

Comparison between Urinary Oestrogen Assay and Serial Ultrasonic Cephalometry in Assessment of Fetal Growth Retardation

“…Both urinary oestrogens and ultrasonic cephalometry have previously been shown to be reliable methods of assessing fetal growthretardation (Michie, 1967;Klopper, 1965;Willocks et al, 1967;Campbell and Dewhurst, 1971), and so one must assume that the management of these cases was influenced by the results of these tests. From Table I, however, it can be seen that the incidence of surgical intervention was very similar in both the abnormal oestrogen and retarded ultrasonic groups.…”

“…Despite the abundance of literature on the subject of oestrogens in pregnancy there is no universally accepted classification. Some authors (Michie, 1967;Elder, 1971) (Klopper, 1969) and often fluctuate widely, so that the determination of whether values are rising or falling is frequently difficult. We have found from the present study that two or more abnormal oestrogens are of most value when assessing fetal growth retardation.…”

Biochemical Tests for the Assessment of Feto-Placental Function

“…Growth retardation or placental insufficiency may often be suspected on clinical grounds when in fact the fetus is developing normally, In those reports (Strand, 1966;Michie, 1967;Galbraith et al, 1969) which include all suspected cases of growth retardation (table 2) it is clear that a large proportion of these pregnancies produce babies of normal weight. Oestrogen estimation is oflittle value in the diagnosis of retarded fetal growth, since normal oestrogens often precede delivery of a small baby and low oestrogen excretion may be followed by perinatal death of a baby of normal weight (table 2).…”