Title: Urinary Calcium to Creatinine Ratio in Preeclampsia – a Comparative Study
Authors: Dr Anita V, Dr Adma Harshan S
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.18535/jmscr/v5i6.128
Abstract
Aim: An investigation To study whether urinary calcium and calcium to creatinine ratio are decreased in pregnant patients with preeclampsia.
Material & Methods: The study was conducted in Sree Avittom Thirunal Hospital, Thiruvananthapuram, during a period of seven months. A total of 100 patients were included in the study out of which 50 were preeclamptic patients and (group 1) another 50 belonged to normo tensive group (group 2). The study group were all primi gravidas, in their third trimesters, on unrestricted diet and with no history of diabetes or renal diseases. Estimation of urinary calcium and creatinine was done at bio-chemistry laboratory of the same hospital. Relevant history like age, socio-economic status, mean arterial pressure, family history of hypertension and history of passive smoking were also collected. Data collected were entered into a master chart and statistical packages were used to compute significance.
Results: Urinary calcium to creatinine ratio was significantly reduced (tvalue 3.57, p 0.0005) in preeclampsia patients as compared to normotensive group. Mean arterial pressure, family history of hypertension and history of passive smoking had no significant association with occurence of preeclampsia in pregnancy.
Conclusion: This study confirms hypo calciuria and decreased urinary calcium to creatinine ratio in preeclampic patients. The mechanism is not well established. The ratio can be used as a predictive tool for development of preeclampsia in pregnancy. Mean values of calcium excretion obtained in this study are lower than that in various other studies. This may be due to dietary deficiency of calcium.
Keywords- Preeclampsia, hypo calciuria, calcium to creatinine ratio, hyper tension.
