Specific concordance index defines the physiological lag between LH and progesterone in women during the midluteal phase of the menstrual cycle

Using a recently developed statistically based method for assessment of the degree of concordance, we evaluated the degree of specific concord, mce (SC) between luteinizing hormone (LH) and progesterone secretory patterns. Eight healthy women volunteered for this study, undergoing a 12-h pulsatility study, sampling every 10 min. LH and progesterone pulse frequencies were estimated with the program DETECT (9.75 ±1 and 11.5±0.9, pulses/l2 h, respectively; mean ±SEM). The temporal relationship between LH and progesterone secretions was evaluated with cross-correlation analysis and with the computation of the SC index. Cross-correlation showed concordance between LH and progesterone p < 0.05) at a range oflag between 0 and 40 min., while the SC index indicated that LH and progesterone pulses were significantly p < 0.05) and maximally correlated at 10-min lag. In conclusion, our data demonstrated that the specific concordance confirms the statistically significant concordance of LH and progesterone secretory e...