title: Urinary gonadotropin peptide: collection of specimens and cutoff levels.
abstract: A low-molecular-weight form of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), urinary gonadotropin peptide (UGP), has been isolated from the urine of pregnant women and of patients with cancer, mainly of gynecological origin. The clinical value of UGP measurement in gynecological diseases is under investigation but a preliminary study is necessary in order to ascertain whether there is a circadian rhythm in UGP production, to clarify the best way to express the results, and to establish the cutoff and decisional values. In our work we demonstrated a significant correlation between the UGP output and the UGP excretion normalized for urinary creatinine. A very significant agreement was even found in 24-hr urine collections and UGP concentration of a single morning specimen from the same patients. No evident circadian rhythm was found, although some patients presented morning levels of UGP higher than in other collections. UGP postmenopausal levels were higher than premenopausal. The cutoff level, adopting the 95.0 percentile, was 200 pmol/mol creatinine.
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine, University Hospital, Padova, Italy.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Plebani
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Navaglia
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bacelle
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Polonio
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lazzari
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Marchetti
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000652:urine*; D018997:Chorionic Gonadotropin, beta Subunit, Human / Q000652:urine*; D002940:Circadian Rhythm; D003404:Creatinine / Q000652:urine; D005260:Female; D005831:Genital Diseases, Female / Q000652:urine*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D010446:Peptide Fragments / Q000652:urine*; D017698:Postmenopause; D011247:Pregnancy; D017697:Premenopause; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013048:Specimen Handling
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D018997:Chorionic Gonadotropin, beta Subunit, Human; D010446:Peptide Fragments; C063554:urinary gonadotropin fragment; D003404:Creatinine