BUN 66, Creatinine 2.3, Stages of Kidney Disease, Treatment

A:

To know how serious your current illness conditions, we need first to know what is the normal range of BUN and creatinine levels. Normal levels of BUN for adults are between 10-20 and for children it is 5-18. As for the normal values of creatinine, it ranges from 0.5-1.2 for adults.

So we can see that your current BUN (66) and creatinine (2.3) are quite higher than the normal range. BUN and creatinine are used to measure kidney functions. Though the exact damage conditions of the kidneys can not be given without further tests, one thing is sure that more than 50% of kidney functions have been lost, therefore early and proper treatment should be sought to prevent further deterioration or at least slow down the illness progression into the final stage.

As for determining which stage of kidney disease you are in, it can not be given with only the number of BUN and creatinine levels. But here is a method that can help you calculate GFR (glomerular filtration rate) and Ccr (clearance rate of creatinine) which can help you know the severity of your renal damages and your current stage.

How to measure GFR with creatinine levels? You can ask your doctor for the GFR or there are many calculators of GFR on line. You need to fill in your age, gender, race, creatinine levels and it is very simple and easy to know the GFR. Based on the GFR, you can know which stage of kidney disease you are in.

CKD (chronic kidney disease) can be divided into 5 stages according to GFR.

CKD stage 1: GRF is above 90

CKD stage 2: 60-89

CKD stage 3: 30-59

CKD stage 4: 15-29

CKD stage 5: GFR is below 15

When GFR is below 30, it means that illness conditions have progressed into the stage 4 and patients will have to prepare for dialysis or kidney transplant. If GFR is below 15, it means that the patients have developed into the end stage when dialysis or kidney transplant is needed to help sustain the patient’s life.