title: [The relationship between onset of labour and concentration of hyaluronic acid and estradiol to progesterone ratio].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To study the changes of serum hyaluronic acid (HA) level and estradiol (E) to progesterone (P) ratio during pregnancy and their relationship with onset of labour.
  
  
  METHODS
  116 normal pregnant women with different gestation age and different phases in labour and 20 postpartum women were studied with 30 cases of nonpregnant women as control. Concentration of HA, E2 and P were determined by radioimmunoassay.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Serum concentration of E2, P and their ratio increased gradually during pregnancy and reached their peaks at the onset of labour. HA concentration was similar to nonpregnant women during first and second trimester, however, significantly increased during labour, and then decreased rapidly to nonpregnant level at 2-3 days postpartum; concentration of HA, E2, P and E2/P increased significantly during labour but unrelated to the gestational age when labour began; serum concentration of HA was negatively correlated with the latent phase (r = -0.344, P < 0.05) but not with the active phase.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  HA, E2, P and E2/P may play an important role in the initiation of labour and may be of value in evaluating cervical ripening and facilitating labour management.
authors.affiliation: 251 Hospital of PLA, Hebei Zhangjiakou.
authors.forename: Q
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004958:Estradiol / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006820:Hyaluronic Acid / Q000097:blood*; D007745:Labor Onset; D011247:Pregnancy / Q000097:blood*; D011374:Progesterone / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D011374:Progesterone; D004958:Estradiol; D006820:Hyaluronic Acid