[Clinical evaluation of DHEA-S plasma levels and possible therapeutic value of the hormone in the third trimester].

Three groups of women were studied. The first included women without obstetric or systemic pathology; in these, plasma concentrations of progesterone, E, and DHEA-S were assayed at 30-40 weeks of pregnancy. The second group comprised women after physiological first delivery at term, and in these the plasma levels of the same hormones were assessed. In the third group, comprising women at 38 weeks of pregnancy with unripened cervix and DHEA-S plasma levels that were by 1-2 weeks below those of women with ripened cervix of the same gestational age, the effect of repeated perfusion with DHEA-S was examined.