S. Vinayachandran1, Darsana K2
BACKGROUND
Pre-eclampsia is defined as the development of new-onset hypertension in the second half of pregnancy often accompanied by new-onset proteinuria with other signs and symptoms. Proteinuria is defined by the excretion of 300 mg or more of protein in a 24-hour urine collection. To avoid time consumed in collection of 24-hour urine specimens, efforts have been made to develop faster methods to determine concentration of urine protein. Preliminary studies have suggested that 12-hour urine protein collection maybe adequate for evaluation of pre-eclampsia with advantage of early diagnosis and treatment of pre-eclampsia as well as potential for early hospital discharge and increased compliance with specimen collection.
The aim of the study is to evaluate and correlate spot urine albumin and 12-hour urine protein with 24-hour urine protein in pre-eclampsia.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
A diagnostic evaluation study- a 24-hour urine protein, 12-hour urine protein and spot urine albumin results are analysed. Correlation of 12-hour urine protein and spot urine albumin with 24-hour urine protein is analysed using SPSS software. The strength of correlation was measured by Pearson’s correlation coefficient (r). Student’s t-test and Chi-square tests were used to compare patients with and without 24-hour urine protein ≥300 mg. Probability value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant.
RESULTS
Of the 300 patients in the study, 111 women had 24-hour urine protein ≥300 mg, 12-hour urine protein was ≥165 mg in 115 patients, 12-hour urine protein estimation correlate with 24-hour urine protein with r value 0.983 and p value 0.000. Sensitivity 94.5%, specificity 94.7%, positive predictive value 91.3% and negative predictive value 96.7%. Spot urine albumin was 1+ or above in 67 patients and was nil or trace in 233 patients. Spot urine albumin correlate with 24-hour urine protein with r value 589 and p value 0.000, sensitivity 45.94%, specificity 91.5%, positive predictive value 76.11% and negative predictive value 74.2%.
CONCLUSION
The high correlation of 12-hour urine protein >165 mg with 24-hour urine protein ≥300 mg suggest that this test has role in the evaluation of women with suspected pre-eclampsia and could be substituted for 24-hour urine protein as a simple, faster and cheaper method.
