Urinary estriol estimations in normal and abnormal pregnancies.

Urinary estriol estimations from 24-hour urine specimens were studied in 65 women in the course of normal pregnancies and compared to 18 analyses in women in whom fetal death had occurred. There is a significant difference in the levels of estriol excretion between these two categories. Serial studies were carried out on patients whose pregnancies ended in normal delivery and in patients whose pregnancies were complicated by eclampsia and by hypertension of various degrees of severity. A definite correlation between urinary estriol excretion and the health of the fetus in utero was found. The information that these estimations provide can be of assistance to the clinician in the management of selected patients where the fetus is in danger prior to delivery.