SERIAL 1ST MORNING ESTRIOL DETERMINATIONS IN EVALUATING THE HIGH-RISK OBSTETRIC PATIENT

  • 1 January 1982
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 59  (1) , 27-32
Abstract
Over the past decade, 24-h urinary estriol determination has become an integral part of the evaluation and monitoring of high-risk obstetric patients for determination of presence or absence of fetal pathology. To assess the utility of estriol determinations obtained by simpler collection methods (serum estriol and 1st morning urine specimens), such collections were made. Serum estriol was an unreliable predictor of 24-h urine values and of estriol fluctuations. Although the correlation between 1st morning and 24-h urinary estriol:creatinine ratios was statistically significant (P < 0.0001), any single 1st morning specimen value chosen at random was a poor predictor of the corresponding 24-h specimen value. In the monitoring of high-risk obstetric patients, it is the significant changes with respect to time rather than the absolute estriol levels that are of interest. Since plots of 1st morning and 24-h specimen values with respect to time in 8 subjects exhibit time trends of equivalent diagnostic utility, 1st morning values may be used in place of 24-h values to monitor high-risk obstetric patients, making the process simpler and quicker.