Accurate Assessment of Early Gestational Age in Normal and Diabetic Women by Serum Human Placental Lactogen Concentration

Determination of the stage of gestation by the assay of chorionic gonadotrophin and Schwangerschaftsprotein 1

“…A good many women are not seen until too late for hCG assays to be applicable and the choice lies between SP1 and hPL. The accuracy of prediction by SPl in this series is very close to that found for hPL by Whittaker et al (1983). There is nothing to choose between the two and the issues could well be decided as a matter of local convenience.…”

“…It is evident from the equations in Table 3 that hCG assays will not give an estimated gestation less than 36 days and SPl not less than 41 days in spite of the fact that the data from which the regression was calculated had a few placental protein values from stages of gestation earlier than this. Presumably the slope of increase cannot be resolved to a single line even when logarithms of the protein value are used as was done by Lagrew et al (1983) and by Whittaker et al (1983). This clearly increases the errors calculated in Table 4 and it would be possible to improve the performance of the test by devising a different formula for low values of SP1 and hCG.…”

“…The breakthrough came 7 years later when Lagrew et a/. (1983) and Whittaker et al (1983) published simultaneously on hCG and hPL assays for the assessment of gestation in very early pregnancy. Lagrew et a/.…”

“…(1983) who measured only hCG, found that in the first 60 days of pregnancy the gestation predicted by hCG concentration differed from that calculated from LMP by 3.1k2.3 days (mean standard deviation). Whittaker et al (1983) preferred hPL to hCG and found that measurements of hPL were as accurate as the estimations derived from ultrasonic measurement of crown-rump length in the assessment of gestation. This work spurred Westergaard et a/.…”

Comparison of Menstrual History and Basal Body Temperature with Early Fetal Growth by Ultrasound in Diabetic Pregnancy

“…In their series there was a discrepancy between the ultrasound scan and menstrual age in 4 out of 12 patients, but no early growth delay could be found when the time of ovulation was determined by salivary progesterone measurements. Whittaker in a series of 13 insulin-dependent diabetic patients estimated early gestation by human chorionic gonadotropin and placental lactogen determinations (11). H e too could not find any early fetal growth delay.…”