Truths About Creatinine Levels
Patients with kidney disease often hear about the creatinine level in their lab test, while most of them do not know some important truths of creatinine levels. To deal with their condition more appropriately, it is necessary for patients to have a better understanding about this aspect.
What is creatinine?
Creatinine is the metabolic product of muscles. It can be produced by the muscles of ourselves, and it can also be gotten from the meat we take. In fact, it is a toxic substance to our body, and almost all creatinine produced by our body will be excreted out by our kidneys in the same day.
What is the normal level of creatinine in blood?
The creatinine level in our blood changes in a stable range. It is 0.6~1.2mg/dL (54~103umol/L) in man, and it is 0.5~1.1mg/dL (44~97umol/L) in woman.
Why patients with kidney disease have high creatinine level?
Creatinine is a toxin to our body, which should be excreted out by our kidney. While for patients with kidney disease, they may have severe kidney damage, and their glomerular filtration rate may have severe decline. So their creatinine may accumulate in the blood, which can cause them to have high creatinine level.
Does patients have no kidney damage if their creatinine level is normal?
In fact, our kidneys have strong compensation, and patients will not have any problem caused by kidney damage as long as more than half kidney function is normal. It is also to say, patients may already have kidney damage even they have no discomfortable feeling, and patients already have severe kidney damage when their creatinine level is a bit higher than normal level.
Does creatinine level always mean patients have severe kidney damage?
Except for the kidney condition, many other factors can also influence the creatinine level, like the muscle amount, the activity amount, the meat intake, etc. While these factors can cause patients to have temporary rise in their creatinine level, which can recover to normal level after a period of time. On the other hand, if patients have persistent high creatinine level, it may mean patients have severe kidney damage.
At what level is dialysis needed?
When to provide dialysis to patients with high creatinine level depends on patients’ condition. For most patients, they will be recommended dialysis when their creatinine level reaches 700umol/L, while some patients can stand a condition of higher creatinine level than this value.
These are some basic truths of creatinine levels, while if you have any other doubt, you can also consult our online experts, and we are glad to help you.
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