The diagnostic accuracy of spot urine protein-creatinine ratio (UPCR) in quantification of proteinuria in women with preeclampsia

Abstract

Introduction: Estimation of urinary excretion of protein is done by the standard method of collection of urine over 24- hours and the test sample is taken from this collection. Because of its technical difficulty there is the necessity to use quick, convenient and reliable method which is well correlates with 24-h urine protein. Aim: This study is carried out to compare the dipstick method and spot urine protein creatinine ratio (UPCR) with that of 24-h urine protein (24HUP) and also to determine the role of proteinuria in predicting the pregnancy outcome in preeclamptic patients. Materials and Methods: We conducted this prospective analytical study in 209 antenatal women in whom 52 were with gestational hypertension and 157 were with preeclampsia. Pearson’s correlation coefficient revealed the strength of correlation while the p value less than 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Receiver-operator curve (ROC) was plotted to find the cut-off value of UPCR and dipstick in detecting significant proteinuria (?300mg/day). Results: The value of UPCR strongly correlated with 24-h urine protein (r=0.941, pThe cut-off value of 0.25 by UPCR method was considered as significant proteinuria. A strong positive correlation was found between 24HUP test and dipstick test (r=0.759, p Conclusions: Spot UPCR can be used as a rapid and reliable alternative method to 24-h urine protein in preeclamptic patients. Keywords: Preeclampsia, Sspot UPR, 24-h urine protein and dipstick method.