Plasma hormone assay in pregnancy.

This paper reports the results obtained with various hormonal parameters (HPL, E3, alpha-FP) in evaluating fetal wellbeing during pathologic pregnancies. The expression of hormonal parameters in terms of standard deviation (S.D.) provides a constant endocrine index throughout pregnancy, independently of the adopted parameter. Such methodology reduces error and simplifies interpretation of data. The hormonal index is important not only for reliable diagnosis of a pathologic situation, but also because of its simple interpretation for clinical and practical purposes.