Creatinine is a breakdown product of creatine, which is an important part of muscle. A serum creatinine test measures the amount of creatinine in the blood.
The kidneys of the person are keeping the level creatinine in blood in a normal range. Creatinine is no used like a kind of kidneys work indicator. If the kidneys become impaired the level of creatinine in the blood will be elevated at once. Thus high levels of creatinine warn of possible malfunction or failure of the kidneys, sometimes even before a person complains on that. That’s why standard blood and urine test checking level of creatinine help doctor to easily detect any problems of patient’s kidneys.
Normal levels of creatinine in the blood are to be:
- for adults males somewhere 0.6 to 1.2 milligrams per deciliter
- for adult females about 0.5 to 1.1 milligrams per deciliter.
Young and muscular or middle-aged adults can have some more creatinine in the blood than the norm acceptable for the general population. On the other hand elderly persons, can have less creatinine in their blood than the accepted norm. Infants have normal levels of about 0.2 or more, depending on their physical development. A person who has only one kidney may have a normal level of about 1.8 or 1.9. Level of Creatinine reaching 2.0 or more in babies and 10.0 or more in adults may indicate the need of use of a dialysis machine to remove wastes from the blood. Certain drugs can sometimes cause abnormally elevated creatinine levels.