Placental lactogen as a reliable index of fetal outcome in threatened abortion during early pregnancy

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Abstract
Summary Human placental lactogen (HPL) levels in the serum of patients with vaginal bleeding between 7 and 22 weeks of pregnancy were compared with normal levels. When HPL was measured during the bleeding episode, all 25 patients who had low HPL levels went on to abort and all 27 patients who had normal levels had pregnancies with a normal outcome. When HPL was measured before the bleeding episode, all 10 patients with low levels went on to abort but so did 20 out of 29 with normal levels. It is concluded that abnormal HPL levels during a bleeding episode are an accurate means of predicting outcome of the pregnancy but HPL levels before the onset of the bleeding are less useful. Drug-induced pregnancies showed no significant differences in HPL levels from those not induced by drugs.