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Serum creatinine

Alexey Portnov, medical expert
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024

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Creatinine is the final product of the breakdown of creatine, which plays an important role in the energy metabolism of muscle and other tissues. Creatine is synthesized mainly in the liver, from where it flows with blood flow into the muscle tissue. Here, creatine, phosphorylated, turns into creatine phosphate. Creatine phosphate belongs to the macroergic compounds and participates in energy transfer in the cell between mitochondria and myofibrils. The concentration of creatinine in the blood depends on its formation and excretion. The formation of creatinine directly depends on the state of muscle mass. Creatinine is excreted by the kidneys through glomerular filtration, but, unlike urea, is not reabsorbed, which has found application in laboratory diagnostics (Reberga-Tareev's test).

The concentration of creatinine in the blood of healthy people is quite constant and depends little on nutrition and other extrarenal factors.

Determination of serum creatinine concentration is widely used in the diagnosis of kidney disease. Creatinine is less dependent on the level of catabolism, it is not reabsorbed in the kidneys, and therefore reflects the degree of impairment of the excretory and filtration functions of the kidneys. Reduction of creatinine in the blood has no diagnostic value.

Reference values (norm) of serum creatinine concentration

	Concentration of serum creatinine
Age	μmol / l	Mg / dL
Newborns	27-88	0.3-1.0
Children under 1 year old	18-35	0.2-0.4
Children from 1 year to 12 years	27-62	0.3-0.7
Teens	44-88	0.5-1.0
Adults:
Men	62-132	0.7-1.4
Women	44-97	0.5-1.1

trusted-source [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9]