Umbilical cord dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate and cortisol levels in preterm infants born to pre-eclamptic mothers.

The influence of early-onset pre-eclampsia upon the umbilical cord serum levels of cortisol and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate was studied in fifty-one preterm infants not exposed prenatally to corticosteroids. Preterm infants born to pre-eclamptic mothers (group A) presented lower dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate levels than preterm infants born to non-preeclamptic mothers (group B). The umbilical cord serum levels of cortisol were similar between both groups. It is suggested that the decrease in the cord serum levels of dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate in preterm infants of pre-eclamptic mothers plays an important role in the pathogenesis of the subnormal maternal urinary estriol excretion, and that the accelerated pulmonary and cerebral maturation of preterm infants born to pre-eclamptic mothers is not explained by an increased fetal serum cortisol concentration.