| Abstrakt: |
1.1. Pregnanediol is defined as an excretion product of the corpus luteum hormone progesterone.2.2. Its synthesis as sodium pregnanediol glucuronidate probably occurs in the liver. Its metabolism and excretion are not dependent up-on the uterus or ovaries, as is shown by injection experiments on men and hysterectomized women.3.3. The urine of monkeys, cats, and rabbits does not contain pregnanediol either normally, during pregnancy or after progesterone injections.4.4. The greatest yield and purest form of pregnanediol glucuronidate occurs in the urine of pregnancy. No pregnant patients have been observed who do not excrete pregnanediol glucuronidate. Therefore the negative diagnosis of pregnancy may be made as a result of negative pregnanediol determination.Pregnanediol is present in small amounts in the urine during the latter half of the menstrual cycle in normal women. Although the excretion during pregnancy is greater than that during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle, a diagnosis of pregnancy cannot be made on this basis because the quantitative determination is not sufficiently accurate.5.5. Five cases of habitual abortion were tested for pregnanediol excretion during subsequent pregnancies. One of these patients aborted spontaneously during the course of progesterone therapy. She showed unusually low pregnanediol excretion.6.6. Seventy-eight simultaneous pregnanediol determinations and endometrial biopsies were done on patients, most of whom were in the sterility clinic. These tests were done in order to ascertain the accuracy of these two methods of determining progestational activity. It is apparent that pregnanediol is excreted during the time that the endometrium is being activated to a secretory phase and only during that time.7.7. There are so many factors controlling the excretion of pregnanediol glucuronidate that the quantitative result is liable to variation. Therefore diagnosis cannot be made on a basis of quantitativedifferences in excretion. |
