What does creatinine clearance indicate?
The creatinine clearance test checks your kidney function by looking at the amount of creatinine in your urine and blood. Creatinine is a waste product that’s typically filtered out of your blood by your kidneys. Abnormal levels of creatinine could be a sign of kidney failure.
What diseases cause low creatinine levels?
Low creatinine levels can be caused by:
- A muscle disease, such as muscular dystrophy. Symptoms of a muscle disease include muscle weakness, muscle stiffness and pain, and decreased mobility.
- A liver disease. Poor liver function interferes with creatine production, which can cause low creatinine.
- Excess water loss.
What affects creatinine clearance?
Sex and race can alter creatinine clearance. Women have lower serum creatinine values because they have less muscle mass and a lower rate of creatinine production. Lower values for Latinos and higher values for blacks probably indicate greater and lesser muscle mass and creatinine production, respectively.
What does creatinine level indicate?
Typically, creatinine travels in the blood to the kidneys where it leaves the body in the urine. High levels in the blood might indicate that the kidneys are not working correctly. The creatinine blood test helps doctors to diagnose kidney disease.
What is a good creatinine clearance level?
Normal Results Clearance is often measured as milliliters per minute (mL/min) or milliliters per second (mL/s). Normal values are: Male: 97 to 137 mL/min (1.65 to 2.33 mL/s). Female: 88 to 128 mL/min (1.496 to 2.18 mL/s).
When should I worry about creatinine clearance?
Abnormal results (lower than normal creatinine clearance) may indicate: Kidney problems, such as damage to the tubule cells. Kidney failure. Too little blood flow to the kidneys.
Is low creatinine serious?
Low creatinine clearance levels can mean you have chronic kidney disease or serious kidney damage. Kidney damage can be from conditions such as a life-threatening infection, shock, cancer, low blood flow to the kidneys, or urinary tract blockage.
What is the difference between creatinine and creatinine clearance?
There is a difference between looking at creatinine in your bloodstream (called “serum creatinine”) and looking at creatinine in your urine (called “creatinine clearance”). These are two different lab tests. Serum creatinine is part of a routine lab report; creatinine clearance is not.
Why is creatinine clearance important?
The creatinine clearance test helps provide information about how well the kidneys are working. The test compares the creatinine level in urine with the creatinine level in blood.
What foods lower creatinine?
For this reason, avoiding foods that contain excessive potassium (avocados, cocoa powder, chocolates, prunes, nuts) and phosphorus (bran, pumpkin seeds, cheese, sesame seeds, tahini, bacon, nuts) to help lower our creatinine levels.
What are the effects of low creatinine level?
Low creatinine can be a sign of certain diseases which cause decreased muscle mass, including myasthenia gravis and muscular dystrophy. These patients will present with weakness, muscle wasting, and other symptoms in addition to the abnormal blood levels.
What medications can cause low creatinine?
Certain medicines can cause creatinine clearance levels to be lower than normal. These include cimetidine, procainamide, certain antibiotics, and quinidine. Certain conditions, such as diabetes and congestive heart failure, may also affect the results.
What causes a low creatinine?
Causes of Low Creatinine Levels. These are the most common causes that lead to low creatinine levels: Reduced muscle mass – this can lead to decreased production of creatinine and it is encountered in elderly patients or those suffering from malnutrition, excessive weight loss or chronic illnesses.