Kidney blood test result & I’m worried

[Loulou82x]

Hello,

Please can someone explain the highlighted part ‘EGFR using creatinine’ part to me on my blood test result? Does this mean mine is sitting right at 60 which is the cut off point before being kidney failure?

my gp has marked as satisfactory and hasn’t followed up. I’m only 31 and I have just read back on previous years and it’s been like this for a year and a half (had 3 sets of bloods during this time) but my bloods 2 years ago when I was pregnant and before hand all seem to be 90!? Is this not a dramatic worrying drop?

I am unsure whether I need to follow this up or not.

thank you

Is that not just the frame of reference used?

My mum has kidney disease and her GFR had to get below 12 before they said it was kidney failure and she needed to start dialysis. I think when it was below 70 it was classed as the the start of kidney disease but it took years to get worse than that. Also the GFR blood test is notoriously unreliable as it fluctuates so much from test to test - so what could be 60 on one test could then be 75 on a retest. Being dehydrated can also really impact it and certain supplements too

If your GP has marked it as satisfactory, then it's fine. That's what satisfactory means.

your eGFR is >60 ('>' meaning 'greater than'). It's completely normal.

It's fine. That result means it's over 60 which indicates perfectly normal kidney function. Labs don't usually give a specific number if it's over 60, they just give a result of >60

It’s saying your result is normal. What are you worried about?

Yours is fine it’s greater than 60 and 60 is the bottom of normal . Besides which all the other results are perfectly normal and it’s not really a case of normal or kidney failure .

Thank you for your replies. I’m worried because I’m only 31 and it’s a dramatic drop in kidney function that I had 2 years ago that was above 90.

my mum is in her sixties with lots of health conditions and on lots of meds & looking at her last renal blood tests her kidney function is much higher than mine.

But it's not a dramatic decrease! It's over 60 which is absolutely normal. Could well be 90 or 100, but labs don't report specific values if it's over 60.

@confusedlots it is specifically 60 - that’s why it’s been marked satisfactory. When looking at my mums results hers are specifically 74 reported in exactly the same way as mine

but it isn't a dramatic drop. 'Greater than 60' could be well over 90, it's just that the lab isn't differentiating between 60 and 90 any more because it doesn't matter. Your creatinine and eGFR will also have been different in pregnancy as part of the normal changes in physiology during pregnancy.

Your creatinine is 60 but that's not your eGFR (the one you've highlighted). It's over 60. I don't think doctors should make results available to people who can't interpret them, just leads to all sorts of confusion.

As PP have said the creatinine is 60, not the eGFR. Generally speaking, lower number is better with creatinine (so then calculations show a higher renal function) although exceptions apply.
The eGFR clearly says greater than 60 and as PP said, this could be upwards of 90ml/min.

The results look normal for a 31 year old to me

Your creatinine is 60 which is mid range and perfectly normal for 31. Your eGFR is a calculation making greater than 60 which is the top number they report. It’s probably a eGFR is 90 but they don’t report this. You do not have any kidney disease based on these results.

It looks like the lab has reported it as >60, which means more than 60. (So it could actually be anything: 61 or 99 or 110 etc). My local lab reports as >90 or the actual numbers if below 90.
I'd check your other results to see if your figures have actually fallen, or is it just a change in how it was reported by the lab.
eGFR is linked to your creatinine levels. (eGfr goes down as creatinine goes up). Have a look at your previous results to see if they were quite steady, and if you're concerned you could discuss with a GP. Ignore the ones when you were pregnant.
In my experience GPs aren't always good at spotting trends before you reach the cut-off point. You're right, a steady normal renal function is different to a normal but falling one.

I recently had a hospital stay due to kidney problems.

In November my eGFR was >60
On admission to hospital in December it was down to 37
On day 3 in hospital it was down to 12 and they were contemplating dialysis
On day 4 in hospital it was back up to 50 and they let me go home.
It's been >60 ever since.

If you are worried about it (and it doesn't look like you need to be) then speak to your doctor

It’s not an actual result, just ‘over 60’ which is normal. Mine is always reported as this.