The Urine Iodine to Creatinine as an Optimal Index of Iodine During Pregnancy in an Iodine Adequate Area in China.

CONTEXT: Iodine nutrition is a global event, especially for pregnant women.

OBJECTIVE: To develop applicable index of iodine intake for population during pregnancy.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: From 2012 to 2014, pregnant women at less than 8 weeks of gestation (n = 222) and reproductive-age women (n = 827) participated in this study. The pregnant women were evaluated at follow-up visits at 8, 12, 16, 20, 28, and 36 weeks of gestation and 3 and 6 months postpartum.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Twenty-four-hour urine samples were collected at weeks 8 of gestation. Urine iodine (UI) and creatinine (Cr) and serum thyroglobulin were measured in all of the subjects. Circulatory iodine was measured using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry at 8, 20, and 36 weeks of gestation and 6 months postpartum.

RESULTS: The median UI concentration decreased from 183.6 to 104.2 μg/L during pregnancy. The serum iodine (SI) changes were similar to the UI to creatinine ratio (UI/Cr). The SI level was lowest at the eighth week of gestation (60.5 μg/L), which rose significantly until 20 weeks (106.5 μg/L) and then began to decline (36 wk, 84.7 μg/L). The 24-hour UI excretion measurement was regarded as the gold standard. The area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve for UI/Cr was 0.92 for iodine deficiency diagnoses and 0.78 for SI. The area for SI was 0.82 for excessive iodine diagnoses and 0.75 for UI/Cr. The areas under these curves were significantly different (P < .001). The areas under the receiver-operating characteristic curve for UI were 0.61 (P = .11) and 0.65 (P = .08) for iodine deficiency and excessive iodine diagnoses, respectively. Additionally, for thyroglobulin, these values were 0.54 (P = .53) and 0.53 (P = .74), respectively.

CONCLUSIONS: Iodine intake, as assessed by spot UI concentration in pregnant women, is inaccurate and increases the prevalence of iodine deficiency. The UI/Cr better reflects the 24-hour iodine excretion and circulating iodine levels during pregnancy and the postpartum period.