Random protein-creatinine ratio for the quantitation of proteinuria in pregnancy.
OBJECTIVE
To compare random urine protein-creatinine ratios with 24-hour urine protein excretion rates in patients hospitalized with hypertensive disorders in pregnancy.


METHODS
All hospitalized, hypertensive patients requiring 24-hour urine protein excretion collections were eligible for the study. During the 24-hour urine collection a separate 2-mL aliquot was taken for a protein and creatinine determination.


RESULTS
Seventy-one samples were collected from patients with the following diagnoses: gestational hypertension (n = 56), preexisting hypertension and superimposed gestational hypertension (n = 11), and syndrome of hemolysis, elevated liver enzymes and low platelets (n = 4). The correlation coefficient between the random protein-creatinine ratio and the 24-hour urine protein excretion was 0.94. Calculated excretion rates with at least 300 mg protein in 24 hours had a sensitivity of 0.93, specificity of 0.90, and positive and negative predictive values of 0.87 and 0.95, respectively. For those samples with calculated excretion rates at least 5 g protein in 24 hours, the sensitivity was 1.00, specificity was 0.99, and positive and negative predictive values were 0.75 and 0.99, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
In nonambulatory hypertensive pregnant patients, there is a strong correlation between random voided protein-creatinine ratios and 24-hour urine protein excretions.
Robert
M
M
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Sepandj
F
F
Liston
R M
RM
Dooley
K C
KC
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003404:Creatinine / Q000652:urine*; D005260:Female; D017359:HELLP Syndrome / Q000652:urine*; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000652:urine*; D016014:Linear Models; D011247:Pregnancy; D011249:Pregnancy Complications, Cardiovascular / Q000652:urine*; D011507:Proteinuria / Q000652:urine*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013997:Time Factors
D003404:Creatinine