Relationship betweeen High Creatinine and Kidney Function

People who are supectible for kidney disease or proof for kidney disorder may be suggested to do creatinine test. When a

creatinine test result comes out, people wonder what the number means for the. Actully, kidney disease is a latent disease

which means that your creatinine level will not get elevated before the kidneys are not so severely impaired. If want to

make it clean as to the reltionship betweem high creatinine and renal functions, first we will need to know what creatinine

is.

What is creatinine? Creatinine is a break-down product of creatine phosphate in muscle, and is usually produced at a fairly

constant rate by the body (depending on muscle mass). Chemically, creatinine is a spontaneously formed cyclic derivative of creatine.

Creatinine is freely filtered out of the blood by the kidneys. The normal range of serum creatinine differs with gender and age, and the referance range differs in different labs. People should be clear of their own referance so as to be sure whether their creatinine is high or not. Many think that normal range of creatinine in themselves mean that their kidneys are also functioning well; however, this is a wrong undertanding. Mild kidney damage may occur before creatinine is high. The kidneys have good compensatory functions, for which only if kidney function has decreased by over 50 percent will creatinine increase evidently.

What is the relationship between high creatinine and kidney function?

Creatinine is chiefly filtered out of the blood by the kidneys, though a small amount is actively secreted by the kidneys

into the urine. There is little-to-no tubular reabsorption of creatinine. If the filtering of the kidney is deficient, blood levels rise. Therefore, creatinine levels in blood and urine may be used to calculate the creatinine clearance (CrCl), which reflects the glomerular filtration rate (GFR). The GFR is clinically important because it is a measurement of renalfunction.

In clinical practice GFRis used to classify kidney disease into five stages ranging from a GFR greater than 90 (Stage 1), GFR 60-89 (Stage 2), GFR 30-59 (Stage 3), GFR 15-29 (Stage 4) and less than 15 cc/min (Stage 5). This classification enables one to determine what level of CKD is present for each individual patient. A GFR below 60 cc/min may indicate that CKD is present if the level persists for more than three months. Usually people begin to have abnormally elevated creatinine, it is stage 3 or even advanced stage of CKD. So if you have high creatinine, even if not severe clinical symptoms, it should raise your attention for treatment to prevent further decline of renal function.