Creatinine is a waste product that the body produces when muscles are used. A
similar substance, creatine is used by the muscles to produce energy. The
muscles metabolize creatine into creatinine and then release creatinine into the
bloodstream. A person's kidneys filter creatinine from the blood and remove it
from the body during urination. People with poorly functioning kidneys generally
develop increased creatinine levels in the blood.
Dehydration
Medline Plus, a website of the National Institutes of Health, indicates that
transient increases in creatinine can be caused by dehydration. Patients with
one kidney such as transplant recipients or kidney donors seem to be
particularly susceptible to the effect of dehydration on creatinine. It is very
important to rule out dehydration as a possible cause of high creatinine in this
population because patients may mistakenly believe that their remaining kidney
is failing.
Heart Disease
High creatinine levels has been linked to atherosclerosis, or hardening of
the arteries. Transient high levels of creatinine can also be caused by
different types of heart surgery, such as aneurysm repair or stent insertion. It
is important to rule out these causes when evaluating high creatinine
levels.
Kidney Disease
Diseased kidneys will no longer filter creatinine from the blood effectively; therefore, levels begin to rise. High creatinine is not a good marker for early stage kidney disease, however, because it does not begin to rise until about 40 percent of kidney function has already been lost.
Creatinine is also used to calculate the glomerular filtration rate, or GFR, in kidney patients. GFR is a measure of how effectively the kidneys filter blood. In his article "An Approach To The Evaluation Of An Elevated Serum Creatinine," Micah Thorp asserts that GFR is the gold standard for measuring the extent of kidney disease.
Doctors routinely measure creatinine several times a year in patients who are at risk for kidney failure. These patients often find it helpful to track their creatinine levels on a spreadsheet over time. By watching how their creatinine levels change, they may get a sense of how fast their kidney disease is progressing.
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