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Twenty-six women aged 41 to 73 with clinical and morphologic forms of endometrial precancer were examined by transvaginal ultrasonic scanning. This method was employed both in the diagnosis and monitoring of the efficacy of hormone therapy. The final diagnosis was made on the basis of histologic examination of endometrial scrapings-off. The results evidence that transvaginal echography is a sufficiently informative method for the diagnosis of this condition and for monitoring the endometrial status over the course of hormonal therapy. The mean size of M-echo in the postmenopause was established: 2.35 +/- 0.07 mm in health or not imaged in endometrial atrophy. M-echo thickness of 11 +/- 0.02 mm may be indicative of the therapy inefficacy or endometrial hyperplasia, and the thickness of 8.7 +/- 0.7 mm indicates polyposis.

Outpatient in vitro insemination has been performed in 609 infertile couples in 1145 menstrual cycles. Age of the women ranged from 19 to 44 years and their history of infertility, from 2 to 17 years. Tubal infertility was present in 439 patients and one or both tubes were patent in 170 patients. Superovulation was induced with anti-estrogens and gonadotropins (Humegon and Neopergonal). Preovulatory oocytes were retrieved using transvaginal follicular puncture guided by transvaginal ovarian ultrasonography. A total of 942 punctures yielded 2177 oocytes (2.3 per puncture). The incidence of conception was 63.3% of the entire population and 75.2% of the mature oocyte population. Division was documented in 1176 zygotes (85.2%). Embryo transfers were undertaken in 498 cycles (2.4 embryos per transfer). There were 80 conceptions (16.1% of transfers); 19 (23.7%) of them were "biochemical" and 10 (12.5%) ended in spontaneous abortion; pregnancy was ectopic in 5 (6.3%) patients. As of March 1, 1990, 46 (57.5%) women gave birth to 51 normal infants (5 twins). The therapeutic results are consistent with experience of world clinics.

Blood serum levels of ferritin and trophoblastic globulin were measured by immunoassay in 389 and 114 cases, respectively, suffering malignant or benign tumors of the uterus and ovary as well as in controls. Hyperferritinemia identified at serum ferritin levels in excess of 200 micrograms/l was established in 94% of cases of ovarian cancer, 57%--benign ovarian tumors, 60%--endometrial carcinoma and in 16% of patients with uterine myoma. Patients with ovarian and uterine malignancies were shown to have the highest serum ferritin levels. The study failed to establish an increase in trophoblastic globulin concentration in cases of nontrophoblastic tumors of the genitals. It is suggested that serum ferritin level be measured in patients presenting with ovarian and uterine tumors and in subjects at high risk for ovarian cancer to assure early diagnosis of disease.

Immunochemical analysis showed chorionic alpha1-microglobulin to be immunologically different from chorionic alpha2-microglobulin. Some physico-chemical properties of these proteins were studied, and they were found to differ from one another by a number of parameters.

Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) was found in 3 of 17 individual extracts of adenocarcinoma and in 7 or 8 individual samples of pseudomucinous cystoma of the human ovaries. Rabbits were immunized for the purpose of preparation of specific antisera against CEA by individual fractions (ammonium sulfate, sulfosalicylic acid and phosphotungstic acid) of CEA-positive adenocarcinomas of the ovary.

An organospecific alpha2-globulin of human placenta was identified with the aid of immunochemical analysis. This antigen differed immunologically from the alpha2- and beta1-globulins of pregnancy, alpha-fetoprotein, placental lactogen, and chorionic gonadotropin. High level of the antigen revealed was found in the placental tissue and the amniotic fluid at the early terms of pregnancy, but its concentration sharply decreased by the time of labour.

The influence of cortisole injections and stress ("handling") in the early ontogenesis (during the first 9 or 16 days of life) on the process of thyrosine aminotransferase induction by cortisol in the adult rats has been studied. It was shown that both the injection of the hormone in the young rats and "handling" led to the manifested trace effects: (1) stable increase of thyrosine aminotransferase activity in the liver of adult (5-6 months) rats and (2) appearance of peculiar tolerance to cortisol in the form of decrease in the ability of cells to induce thyrosine aminotransferase in response to the hormone injection. The data obtained suggest that the sensitive period of postnatal ontogenesis when cortisol or "handling" exert such a stable effect is limited by the 3rd and 9th days after birth. The causes of such "biochemical imprinting" are considered with respect to the increased sensitivity of the genetical system of cells-targets to the transcription inducers during the early postnatal development.