THE PREGNANDIOL PRECIPITATION TEST. FURTHER OBSERVATIONS ON CLINICAL APPLICATIONS AND TECHNIC*

Abstract

An appraisal of the efficiency of the pregnandiol precipitation test based on 737 pregnancy tests and 149 patients with threatened abortion is presented. The over-all accuracy in the diagnosis of pregnancy is 91.9%. The false positive tests are discussed in detail. If the data are restricted to patients with amenorrhea, the accuracy is 97.2%, thus comparing favorably with the Friedman test. In threatened abortion where negative pregnandiol tests were obtained, 96.2% subsequently aborted. Preliminary investigation of pregnandiol excretion during post-ovulatory phases of menstrual cycles in conjunction with basal temp. detns. indicate further usefulness of the test in the study of problems of infertility. The technic is presented in detail with modifications not previously published which include (a) use of an 8-hr. specimen of urine for assay, and, (b) addition of concd. HCl to cause floc-culation of the precipitate, thus making it more easily observed.