URINARY GONADOTROPIN PEPTIDE - COLLECTION OF SPECIMENS AND CUTOFF LEVELS

A low-molecular-weight form of human chorionic gonadotropin (hcG), uri nary gonadotropin peptide (UGP), has been isolated from the urine of p regnant women and of patients with cancer, mainly of gynecological ori gin. The clinical value of UGP measurement in gynecological diseases i s under investigation but a preliminary study is necessary in order to ascertain whether there is a circadian rhythm in UGP production, to c larify the best way to express the results, and to establish the cutof f and decisional values. In our work we demonstrated a significant cor relation between the UGP output and the UGP excretion normalized for u rinary creatinine. A very significant agreement was even found in 24-h r urine collections and UGP concentration of a single morning specimen from the same patients. No evident circadian rhythm was found, althou gh some patients presented morning levels of UGP higher than in other collections. UGP postmenopausal levels were higher than premenopausal. The cutoff level, adopting the 95.0 percentile, was 200 pmol/mol crea tinine. (C) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.