1. The presence of proteinuria is not essential to the diagnosis of pre‐eclampsia under many diagnostic consensus statements. The aim of the present study was to assess maternal and perinatal outcomes after proteinuric pre‐eclampsia compared with other non‐proteinuric disease presentations.

2. An individual patient data review (n = 670) was undertaken for 2003–2006 at a tertiary referral centre in Sydney (NSW, Australia). Women were diagnosed in accordance with the Australasian Society for the Study of Hypertension in Pregnancy Consensus Statement. Data were analysed with the Chi‐squared test, t‐tests and non‐parametric tests. Statistical significance was set at P < 0.05.

3. The proteinuric cohort had higher systolic and diastolic blood pressure recordings than the non‐proteinuric cohort (160/102 and 149/94 mmHg, respectively; P < 0.001), and were also administered magnesium sulphate more frequently (44 vs 22%, respectively; P < 0.001), delivered at earlier gestation (37 vs 38 weeks, respectively; P < 0.001), required operative delivery more frequently (63 vs 48%, respectively; P < 0.001) and received more antihypertensive medications during the antenatal period (72 vs 57%, respectively; P < 0.001). Acute renal failure and acute pulmonary oedema were rare. Four cases of eclampsia all occurred in non‐proteinuric women. The perinatal mortality rate was lower for the offspring of women with proteinuric pre‐eclampsia compared with offspring of non‐proteinuric women (13/1000 and 31/1000, respectively; P = 0.006).

4. The results of the present study indicate that the presence of proteinuria denotes a group of women who have higher antenatal blood pressure, who deliver at earlier gestation and require operative delivery more commonly, although it is not an indicator of other markers of maternal morbidity or perinatal mortality.