European journal of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive biology
-
Eur. J. Obstet. Gynecol. Reprod. Biol. · Jun 2009
Comparative Study Clinical TrialAccuracy of the spot urinary microalbumin:creatinine ratio and visual dipsticks in hypertensive pregnant women.
New developments in proteinuria assessment have included the use of spot urinary microalbumin to creatinine ratio measurements. This study determines the accuracy of spot urinary microalbumin to creatinine ratio dipsticks and conventional visual dipsticks compared to the 24h urinary protein (gold standard) to detect significant proteinuria in hypertensive pregnant women. ⋯ Neither the visual dipstick nor the urinary microalbumin to creatinine ratio dipstick read on the Clinitek 50 system is accurate when compared to the total 24h urinary protein. Differences between the urinary microalbumin to creatinine ratio and 24h total urinary protein may be due to the variation in the albumin fraction of the total urinary protein of pre-eclampsia, technical problems with imprecision of the assay technique, and clinical causes of false positives and negatives. The improved sensitivity of the automated urinary microalbumin to creatinine ratio dipstick over the visual dipstick suggests it may be a suitable substitute for the visual dipstick in clinical practice.