Serum creatinine level is an important index in assessing renal function.
Creainine is the metabolic product of creatine in muscle. Under normal
condition, creatinine is discharged out of body by kidneys so it can keep a
balanced level in body. However, if you have kidney damage, the creatinine level
will increase. When using creatinine level to assess the renal function, you
should know the following notices.
1. Although serum creatinine level is an important index in assessing renal
function, it is not sensitive at all. Only when glomerular filtration rate
declines to less than half of the normal level, will serum creatinine level
increase. In other worlds, you may have lost more than half of your renal
function when the serum creatinine level increases. Therefore, even you find
your creatinine level to increase recently you should also receive treatment at
once.
2. Creatinine is mainly from muscle. Therefore, for the elder and people
without much muscle, their normal creatinine level is usually a little lower
than those with much muscle. Therefore, if their creatinine level is next to the
upper limit of the normal level, it means that their renal functions have been
damaged seriously.
3. As the reference levels of creatinine levels vary with different
hospitals, the patients should tell whether the level is high or low based on
the specific reference level.
4. If you suffer from muscle trauma or muscle dissolving caused by medicines,
virus, bacteria or poisoning and so on, you may have increased creatinine level.
However, in this case, it is caused by muscle damage, but not kidney damage.
5. For pregnant women, their creatinine level is obviously lower than the
normal level. Therefore, they should not tell their renal function is normal or
not just based on the test result on their medical reports simply.
Therefore, if your creatinine level increases, you should find out its
specific cause and then receive relative treatment in time.