[The urinary excretion of pregnanediol during pregnancy determined by gas-liquid chromatography. I. Its evolution throughout the normal and pathological pregnancy (author's transl)].

Employing the technique described by Van Kampen and Anker, modified by Macarulla et al., 180 pregnant women have been studied (66 normals and 114 with different pathology: infertility, toxemia, diabetes, Rh isoinmunization, gemelar pregnancy and abortions), taking 319 determinations of pregnanediol in 24 hours urine samples. The analysis of the results show in normal pregnancy a progressive increase of the urinary pregnanediol from the beginning of gestation, this increase being more intense from the 20th week, reaching the maximum value in the 37th week and from this point descending slowly. In patients with toxemia, the values of pregnanediol (in the majority of the cases) are decreased, while in pregnant women with antecedents of infertility are increased from the 36th week of pregnancy, although they had protective treatment from first months of pregnancy. No manifest deviations of urinary pregnanediol from the normal values exist in diabetic pregnant women, Rb isoinmunization or gemelar pregnancies. In aborted pregnancies the pregnanediol values are markedly decreased without a tendency to increase, contrary to the threats of abortion in full-term pregnancies.