Serum creatinine

A normal value is 0.8 to 1.4 mg/dL.

Females usually have a lower creatinine than males, because they usually have less muscle mass.

Note: Normal value ranges may vary slightly among different laboratories. Talk to your doctor about the meaning of your specific test results.

Higher-than-normal levels may indicate:

• Acute tubular necrosis
• Dehydration
• Diabetic nephropathy
• Eclampsia (a condition of pregnancy that includes seizures)
• Glomerulonephritis
• Kidney failure
• Muscular dystrophy
• Preeclampsia (pregnancy-induced hypertension)
• Pyelonephritis
• Reduced kidney blood flow (shock, congestive heart failure)
• Rhabdomyolysis
• Urinary tract obstruction

Lower-than-normal levels may indicate:

• Muscular dystrophy (late stage)
• Myasthenia gravis

Additional conditions under which the test may be performed:

• Alport syndrome
• Atheroembolic kidney disease
• Chronic kidney disease
• Cushing syndrome
• Dementia due to metabolic causes
• Dermatomyositis
• Diabetes
• Digitalis toxicity
• Ectopic Cushing syndrome
• Generalized tonic-clonic seizure
• Goodpasture syndrome
• Hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS)
• Hepatorenal syndrome
• Interstitial nephritis
• Lupus nephritis
• Malignant hypertension (arteriolar nephrosclerosis)
• Medullary cystic kidney disease
• Membranoproliferative GN I and GN II
• Type 2 diabetes
• Polymyositis (adult)
• Prerenal azotemia
• Primary amyloidosis
• Secondary systemic amyloid
• Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura
• Wilms' tumor

Images

Creatinine tests

Review Date: 08/07/2009
Reviewed By: David C. Dugdale, III, MD, Professor of Medicine, Division of General Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M., Inc.

A.D.A.M., Inc. is accredited by URAC, also known as the American Accreditation HealthCare Commission (www.urac.org)