title: A study on the serum pregnancy zone protein levels in pregnant women and patients with gynecological tumors.
abstract: In this study, the serum levels of the pregnancy zone protein (PZP) were determined by PZP-single radial immunodiffusion in 708 cases of normal pregnancy, 207 with abnormal pregnancy and 188 with gynecological tumors. The results indicated that serum PZP levels in the normal pregnancy was detectable 5 weeks after gestation. It increased with the advance of gestational weeks, and reached a peak level in week 40. The serum PZP levels in 81.7% of patients with threatened abortion but not aborted were within the normal range, and also mostly in those with pregnancy-induced hypertension, intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR), anencephalus and ectopic pregnancy; the serum PZP levels in 51.6% of patients with invasive moles and 80.0% with choriocarcinoma, respectively, were lower than in normal controls. In gynaecological tumors, the serum PZP levels were significantly higher in patients with ovarian carcinomas than in those with other ovarian tumors (P < 0.01), and in those with endometrial or cervical carcinoma than in those with uterine myomas (P < 0.01). These results suggest that measuring the serum PZP levels may be used as an important reference index to observe threatened abortion and to identify trophoblastic diseases and gynecological tumors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Second Teachning Hospital, Norman Bethune University of Medical Sciences, Changchun.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Teng
authors.forename: W Y
authors.initials: WY
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: F Q
authors.initials: FQ
authors.lastname: Zhu
mesh_terms: D000033:Abortion, Threatened / Q000097:blood; D005260:Female; D005317:Fetal Growth Retardation / Q000097:blood; D006801:Humans; D007889:Leiomyoma / Q000097:blood*; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000097:blood*; D011225:Pre-Eclampsia / Q000097:blood; D011247:Pregnancy / Q000097:blood*; D011257:Pregnancy Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D018566:Pregnancy, High-Risk; D014328:Trophoblastic Neoplasms / Q000097:blood; D014594:Uterine Neoplasms / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D011257:Pregnancy Proteins