![]() ![]() For many years this was assumed to be due to increased muscle mass in Blacks, something that has been documented in many studies, but this explanation may be inadequate. That is, Blacks had higher creatinine levels, on average, for any given GFR. When later tested in people who self-identified as Black, creatinine levels were correlated with GFR, but at different levels than in those who self-identified as white individuals. Unfortunately, the study included only white people (and mostly men), so it was not clear whether their model would extend to everyone. The first estimated GFR was developed by Cockcroft and Gault in the 1970s – they showed that blood levels of creatinine could be used to estimate creatinine clearance, which correlated with GFR. One reason is that different geographic and ethnic groups seem to have different baseline levels of creatinine. We assume that younger people and males will have higher creatinine levels at baseline.īut it turns out that even when accounting for gender and age, our formula for calculating eGFR from creatinine levels is not perfect. Accurately measuring muscle mass is another cumbersome procedure, so instead, we use generalizations and correct for them: the formula for calculating eGFR thus uses gender and age as a gross correction for muscle mass. If we want to estimate kidney function based on creatinine, we need to correct for muscle mass. Elderly individuals, who have lost muscle mass with aging, tend to have lower creatinine levels. Men, as a group, tend to have a higher muscle mass than women, so they also tend to have higher creatinine levels. Creatinine comes from muscle, so more muscular individuals release more creatinine and have overall higher creatinine levels than scrawny individuals. The more creatinine someone makes, the higher her creatinine level, even if her kidneys are working fine. Creatinine levels are not a perfect approximation of kidney function, though, since individuals differ in the amount of creatinine they produce. ![]()
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