Review: point of care dipstick urinalysis has low accuracy for detecting proteinuria in pregnancy

Dr M Kilby, Birmingham Women's Hospital, Edgbaston, UK. m.d.kilby@bham.ac.uk Source of funding: not stated Level of urine dipstick (number of studies) Pooled estimates Sensitivity (95% CI) Specificity (CI) +LR -LR [= or >, slanted]1+ (visual) (6) 55% (37 to 72) 84% (57 to 95) 3.5 (1.7 to 7.3) 0.60 (0.45 to 0.80) [= or >, slanted]1+ (automatic) (1) 82% (71 to 90)[dagger] 81% (71 to 89)[dagger] 4.3 (2.8 to 6.6) 0.22 (0.14 to 0.36) *Reference standard cut point was 300 mg/24 hours. Feb 1, 2005 Pre-eclampsia is characterised by the triad of hypertension, oedema, and proteinuria > 300mg/24 hours. Because of the difficulties in obtaining complete 24 hour collections, point of care dipstick urinalysis is frequently used as a screening tool.