The Human Placenta: Proteins and Hormones [antikvár]

PREFACE This book is the outcome of a meeting held in Siena in July 1979 in the Serono Symposia series. The title, then as now, was an all embracing one-The Humán Placenta: Proteins and Hormones. Not surprisingly, the contributions which were offered ranged widely. Through all, however, ran the thread of clinical concern with the assessment of placental function, which we hope will bind together the writings in this book as it did our deliberations in that midsummer's week. The programme of the conference did not lend itself to the layout of a book and we have not attempted to follow it. We have instead brought together related material under categories of our own devising. Inevitably this has led to the appearance of a miscellaneous group in the contents Üst. We do not intend to imply that these contributions were irrelevant to the subjects under discussion; merely that they do not fit into our arbitrary classification. The writings stem from three sources. Firstly, a number of investigators were invited to present reviews of aspects of their work. Secondly, most, but not all, the free communications given at the meeting were accepted for publication. Thirdly, the authors of somé of the posters, which seemed to us to be of particular interest, were asked to prepare their contribution in written form. The authors have been allowed a fairly free hand within the limits of what Academic Press could tolerate, but we have attempted to standardize on English as opposed to American usage. The rangé is wide; that is in the nature of open conferences. We hope that the writing reflects what European obstetricians were doing and thinking in 1979. August 1980 ARNOLD KLOPPER ANDREA GENAZZANI PIER GIORGIO CROSIGNANI