The correlation between estriol (E3) and human placenta lactogen (HPL) and perinatal morbidity was investigated in 105 diabetic, 96 hypertensive and 96 pregnancies without diabetes and hypertension. The hormones were determined by radioimmunoassay. Only if two determinations were outside the normal range the values were accepted as pathological. In pregnancies with hypertension a decrease of E3- and HPL-concentrations was correlated to significant higher incidence of operative deliveries and pathological APGAR-Scores. In the diabetic group is the low E3-concentration of significant predictive value in respect of the pathological cardiotocography as the indication of the operative delivery, the same applies to low HPL-concentrations in the hypertension group, in the control group no significant differences could be determined relating thereto. Hypotrophic newborns in the hypertension and control group are significant more frequent, if the concentration of E3 is decreased. The same applies to decreased HPL-concentrations in every group, where the hypertension group shows the highest predictive values.
