title: Maternal serum corticotropin-releasing hormone at midgestation in Hispanic and white women.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Maternal circulating corticotropin-releasing hormone analysis at midgestation has been proposed as a parameter for the prediction of preterm birth. However, one recent study has reported that corticotropin-releasing hormone concentrations at midgestation differ in the black and white populations. These findings led us to investigate whether other populations have differing concentrations of maternal circulating corticotropin-releasing hormone that may require reference to specific population-based medians for optimal midgestational screening.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this study we have defined the mean and median concentrations of maternal circulating corticotropin-releasing hormone in Hispanic and white populations at each gestational week from 14 to 18 weeks of pregnancy, using a sensitive and specific radioimmunoassay.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Corticotropin-releasing hormone concentrations were found to be significantly lower in the Hispanic population as compared with whites at 16, 17, and 18 weeks' gestation. The distribution of corticotropin-releasing hormone, expressed as multiples of the median (MoM) using the appropriate ethnicity-related median, was estimated for each gestational week and for each population. No differences were observed in the distribution of the ethnicity-adjusted MoM for Hispanics and whites.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These data demonstrate that ethnicity is a significant factor affecting corticotropin-releasing hormone concentrations at midgestation in the Hispanic and white populations. The use of ethnicity-specific medians to estimate the ethnicity-specific MoM for the corticotropin-releasing hormone concentrations may enhance the predictive value of midgestational maternal corticotropin-releasing hormone as a screening parameter for the prediction of preterm birth.
authors.affiliation: University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas, USA.
authors.forename: T M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Siler-Khodr
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Forthman
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Khodr
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Matyszczyk
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Khodr
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Khodr
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003346:Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D005865:Gestational Age; D006630:Hispanic or Latino; D006801:Humans; D007752:Obstetric Labor, Premature / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011247:Pregnancy / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics*; D011262:Pregnancy Trimester, Second; D011296:Prenatal Diagnosis / Q000379:methods; D011863:Radioimmunoassay; D012016:Reference Values; D044465:White People / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D003346:Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone