ABSTRACT
To assess the significance of measrments of serum and urinary calcium in differentiation between different forms of gestational hypertension, serum calcium, 24-hour urinary calcium/creatinine ratio and urinary calcium/creatinine ratio in random samples were measured in 31 pregnant women in the third trimester. They were classified into the following 4 groups: group I: normal pregnant women as a control group [n=8], group II: pregnant women with transient hypertension [n=7], group III: pregnant women with chronic hypertension "with history of hypertension before pregnancy" [n=7] and group IV: pregnant women complicated with pre-eclampsia "hypertension+ proteinuria > 300 mg/24 hour" [n=9]. According to the results obtained, serum calcium levels showed nonsignificant differences between the four studied groups while the mean urinary calcium excertion in the 4 studied group was 213 +/- 56, 210 +/- 52, 198 +/- 48 and 70 +/- 17 mg/24 hour, respectively showing a marked decreased in the pre-eclamptic patients. The mean calcium/creatinine ratio in random urine samples showed also significant decreases [173 +/- 41, 164 +/- 33, 161 +/- 42 and 58 +/- 16 mg/gm, respectively]. We concluded that hypocalcuria was a marked sign in all of our preeclamptic patients. Determination of 24 hour urinary calcium excretion or calcium/creatinine ratio in random urine samples could be a reliable index of pre-eclampsia