Is Creatinine Level Of 3.5 A Cause For Concern?

Posted on Mon, 17 Apr 2017

Question: My mother is a diabetic patient since her early age. Now she is 54 yrs. She is having hyper-tension. Recently her creatinine measurement comes around 3.9. Potassium m is 5.8. HbA1c is well controlled for 8 yrs by taking insulin(Human Mixtard ) two times a day. It comes around 5.5 to 6. Blood Urea is 147. Uric Acid 9.2 .Recently I conducted Ultra-sound of her lower abdomen which includes kidney, bladder.
Size of Right Kidney 8.98 cm, Left kidney- 9.43 cm. USG Report says normal, no stones etc. Only Left Renal Parenchymal disease appears. Her Hemoglobin percentage is 8.5 . She is already taking sodium and potassium restricted diet.
Her BP is around 125/74 by taking medicines
Doctor advised her to take following medicines : Cilacar 10 ( 2 times daily), Prolomet XL 50 (1 time), Nefrosave (2 times daily), Dytor 10 ( 1 alternate daily) ,Febuset 40 (1 daily). She is taking these medicines for the last 15 days . Along with these she is taking folic acid tablet twice daily
Will these medicines bring down her creatinine , blood urea or it will sustain at this level? please advise doctor

Answered by Dr. Ravi Bansal (10 hours later)

Brief Answer:
Moderate renal failure with URINE infection

Detailed Answer:
Hi,

the reports of the patient shows that she has a moderate renal failure . Her creatinine level is around 3.5. If only one kidney is damaged creatinjne will remain normal. usually both the Kidneys are affected and the damage may not show up on ultrasound.

creatinine estimate the kidney function . only when both Kidneys are affected the serum creatinine level starts Rising.

Now how can we bring the creatinine level down . we should try to find out what are the factors that are increasing the creatinine level this can be the presence of urinary infection as is shown in the urine report. treatments with effective antibiotics may bring the CREATININE levels down . other factors which influence the creatinine level are -role of blood pressure , good control of sugar, using of alternative medicines and unprescribed medicines or pain Killers can lead to increase in serum creatinine levels .

the blood reports also show less haemoglobin. this should be managed with erythropoietin hormone and iron. also it shows acidosis which can be corrected with use of sodium bicarbonate tablets which may help the patient.

overall you can discuss the situation with your treating nephrologist and the patient should be in close touch with treating doctor. serum creatine should be followed. No one can predict whether the CREATININE will come down or not but this is how the management should be done

best wishes
any further follow-up query you can write in

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Prasad