Comparisons of urine protein-to-creatinine ratios and their dynamic change patterns during labor at term between normal pregnant women and women with pregnancy induced hypertension

Introduction: To evaluate patterns of change in the urine protein-to-creatinine ratios (uPCRs) during labor at term between normal and women with pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH). Methods: This is an observational study in tertiary referral hospital, recruiting 269 women at term delivery in Taiwan from April 19, 2019 to April 18, 2021. uPCRs in four phases (latent, active, recovery and early postpartum) and related clinical data at delivery were collected. Multivariate analyses with a linear regression model were performed to analyze continuous variables after adjusting for clinical data between two groups. Results: Based on exclusion criteria, 68 normal and 24 pregnant women with PIH were included. There were no differences in the uPCR or the proportion cases of uPCRs ≥ 300 mg/g between normal and PIH group in the four phases. There was a statistically significant tendency for the proportion of uPCRs ≥ 300 mg/g to increase from the latent to the early postpartum phase in both groups. The proportion of uPCRs ≥ 300 mg/g significantly increased from the active to the recovery phase and then declined from the recovery to the early postpartum phase in the normal group. Thus no differences in uPCRs cases change between any two phases in women with PIH, except the duration above stated. Conclusion: This is the first study to demonstrate that uPCRs data are not different between normal pregnant and PIH groups during the course of labor, but it did show different dynamic change patterns throughout the labor phases.