At What Point of Renal Parenchyma Damage does Serum Creatinine Start to Rise

Creatinine is an important measurement for renal functions. It is a metabolic wasteful product from muscle activities. In muscle, creatine is generated into creatinine through nonreversible dehydration reaction and is excreted into urine after filtered by the kidneys. Hence, serum creatinine level is closely linked with muscle total in human body and is seldom affected by diet and other factors. On premise that muscle total is stable, serum creatinine level is mainly determined by glomerular filtration rate (GFR). However, early reduction of glomerular filtration rate (GFR) will not immediately cause your creatinine to rise. Earlier before creatinine rises it is crucial to treat damaged kidneys and prevent kidneys from deteriorating quickly.

Generally speaking, because our kidneys have compensatory functions, symptoms don’t occur before kidneys are damaged to severe degrees. The kidneys filter bloodstream and discharge wastes out of the body. Creatinine itself is a metabolic waste. When creatinine rises, many other toxins accumulate in bloodstream as well. Those wastes can cause varying symptoms and complications, such as skin itching, vomiting, headaches, weakness, heart problem, etc. At that point, glomerular filtration rate (GFR) has dropped by over 50 percent and people developed stage 3 or even severer stages of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Treatment will be better before your creatinine starts to rise.

Renal parenchyma consists of renal cortex and renal medulla. The functioning renal cells existing in the parenchyma area are basic units that filter wastes and keep us healthy. Early damage to renal cells doesn’t cause your creatinine to rise, but can pose some alarming signs to you, such as proteins or blood in urine. At this time, the treatment to repair the injured filtering cells would be greatly helpful to get rid of the symptoms and restore kidney functions. However, in poorly treated cases, renal parenchyma damage can worsen quickly to cause your glomerular filtration rate (GFR) to decrease. The treatment is not as easy when creatinine is severely elevated and renal parenchyma gets atrophied. It is unwise to delay the treatment and not treat the disease carefully in early stages/before creatinine rises.

Hope the above is of help for you. If you or a loved one has renal parenchyma disease, you may get help from an expert doctor.