Comparative Evaluation of Quantitative Protein Measurements in 8-12 and 24 Hour Urine Samples for Diagnosis of Pre-eclampsia

Background: In this study our purpose was to determine whether 8 and/or 12 hour urine total protein values correlate with the 24 hour value to confirm the diagnosis of pre-eclampsia. Methods: The study population included 70 inpatients with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. Patient's urine was collected over 24 hours with the first 8 hours, next 4 hours, and remaining 12 hours in separate containers. The urine volume and total protein and creatinine levels were measured in the 8, 12, and 24 hour samples. The 8 and 12-hour results were compared to the 24-hour results by use of simple regression analysis. Of the 70 patients 31 patients had no proteinuria, 32 patients had mild proteinuria and 7 patients had severe proteinuria. Results: The results of our study reveal that the protein values for the first 8 and 12 hours of a 24 hour sample do correlate with the entire 24 hour sample for patients with mild and severe disease ( p<0.001). Conclusion: The 12-hour sample correlates with the 24-hour sample for patients with no disease (p<0.001), mild proteinuria (p<0.001) and severe proteinuria (p<0.001). MJIRI, Vol. 20, No.1, 23-27, 2006.