Early diagnosis and treatment of preeclampsia are essential for prevention of seizure development and fetus maturation. Although various methods have been developed for predicting or monitoring the onset of preeclampsia, a simple assay that can be used as a home or point of care test remains unavailable. We attempted to find a urinary protein that could be used as a biomarker for developing such a test. Urinary samples were collected from 124 preeclampsia and 135 healthy pregnant women for screening using a protein array technology and quantification by ELISA. A urinary protein, adipsin, was found significantly increased, and the adipsin creatinine ratio was closely correlated with the urinary 24-hour protein in patients with preeclampsia. When combined with the increased diastolic blood pressure (≥90 mm Hg), the sensitivity was 90.3% and the specificity reached 100.0% for preeclampsia diagnosis. We then developed a laminar flow immunoassay for rapid diagnosis, and the sensitivity and specificity were 89.04% and 100%, respectively, when combined with increased diastolic blood pressure. Because of the easiness of sample collection, assay conduction, and result interpretation, this urine test can be potentially used as a home test for monitoring preeclampsia onset for high-risk pregnant women and as a rapid test for a preliminary diagnosis for emergency patients at hospitals.
Keywords: preeclampsia protein creatinine ratio urinary adipsin urinary protein urinary rapid test.
© 2014 American Heart Association, Inc.