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Human Fetal Serum Cortisol Levels at Delivery: A Review

Reproductive Physiology Unit, Montreal General Hospital, and Faculty of Medicine, McGill University Montreal, Canada

Abstract

THE FIRST attempts to measure cortisol in umbilical cord serum (1, 2) were made in the 1950s using spectrophotometric techniques sensitive to the dihydroxyacetone side chain. Since these assays measured mainly cortisol and cortisone, the latter being low in adult serum, they gave a reasonably accurate estimate for cortisol in maternal serum; however the values were much too high for cord serum where cortisone levels usually exceed those of cortisol. With the introduction of the double isotope dilution derivative (DIDD) technique, much lower values were obtained (3–5). Fluorometric determinations and radiotransinassays (RTA) became available in the early 1960s and promised greater simplicity, followed by radioimmunoassays (RIA) in the early 1970s. All these techniques were validated mainly using adult serum although it was recognized by Iturzaeta et al. in 1970 (6) that extra purification was necessary to eliminate the effects of steroids competing for the human transcortin used in radiotransinassays employed for neonatal serum.

Footnotes

^* Career Investigator, Medical Research Council of Canada. Address correspondence to: Dr. B. E. Pearson Murphy, R. 7811, Livingston Hall, Montreal General Hospital, 1650 Cedar Ave., Montreal, Canada H3G 1A4.

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