title: Assessment of Protein:Creatinine Ratio versus 24-Hour Urine Protein in the Diagnosis of Preeclampsia.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Current evidence has tried to extrapolate the use of the protein:creatinine ratio (PCR) in a single urine sample as a rapid diagnostic tool for preeclampsia (PE). The present study addresses the effectiveness of the PCR in the differential diagnosis of the pregnancy hypertensive disorder (PHD).
  
  
  METHODS
  This is a prospective study conducted on patients admitted during 1 year with a diagnosis of PHD. These pregnant women were assessed for the correlation between the 24-hour test and the PCR to detect significant proteinuria. A ROC curve was made to determine the PCR cutoff value that would offer the best positive predictive value (PPV) as an early predictor of global and severe PE.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 72 patients with 24-hour proteinuria and PCR were studied (49 with PE). A significant correlation between the quick and the deferred sampling was observed (r = 0.60; p < 0.001). The ROC analysis showed a PCR of 0.36 as the best cutoff value for the diagnosis of global PE (PPV 96.4%; false-positive rate 4.4%; AUC 0.8802) and a cutoff value of 4.58 (sensitivity: 100%; PPV 87.5%; false-positive rate 3.5%; AUC 0.9805) as the best cutoff for the diagnosis of severe proteinuria.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  PCR proved to be an effective test for the differential diagnosis of PHS.
authors.affiliation: Fetal Medicine Unit, Hospital Clx00ED;nico de la Universidad de Chile, Santiago de Chile, Chile.
authors.forename: Enrique
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Valdés
authors.forename: Álvaro
authors.initials: Á
authors.lastname: Sepúlveda-Martínez
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tong
authors.forename: Magdalena
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Castro
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Castro
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003404:Creatinine / Q000652:urine*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D011225:Pre-Eclampsia / Q000652:urine*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011247:Pregnancy; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011507:Proteinuria / Q000652:urine*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D016482:Urinalysis
chemical_list: D003404:Creatinine