The importance of radioimmunological assay of placental function in the gynaekological practice

The determination of human placental lactogen (HPL) has a primary importance in the early diagnostics of placental insufficiency and indirectly, of foetal endangerment. For the evaluation of HPL immune methods based on haemagglutination inhibition, immune diffusion methods and recently a much more sensitive radioimmune procedure are used. The principle of the latter is based on the linkage between a standard labelled with 125I and the specific antiserum. Eliminating the time-consuming preparative work a Phadebaskit (Pharmacia) was used for the radioimmunological assay. The HPL-values from various literary sources implied the author's method, deviated considerably from one another. Experimental data showed that the serum HPL-levels of the radioimmunological assay satisfactorily changed as a function of gestation and gave a good correlation with the haemagglutination method. (D.E.)