Endocrine Assays in the Monitoring of Pregnancy

The application of hormone assays to the monitoring of high-risk pregnancies is most helpful if the assays are performed serially in any one patient to offset marked interindividual and intraindividual biological variability. Because of the difficulty in clinically identifying abnormal fetal conditions, most assays do not yield optimal sensitivity and specificity; thus, they are best used as adjuncts to other diagnostic procedures.