Question:

I donated a kidney to my husband 5 years ago in 2004. I am concerned about my most recent lab results. My creatinine is 1.2 and my BUN is 13. Last year my creatinine was 1.3 and my BUN was 15. I am a black female, age 33, and weigh 144 lbs, what should my creatinine be at this stage?

Answer:

Your serum creatinine concentration, which reflects your level of kidney function, is well within the expected range for someone who has previously donated a kidney. The creatinine value is often used in a variety of formulas to estimate your glomerular filtration rate (GFR) which is an estimate of how rapidly your kidney filters blood. After donating a kidney, GFR generally falls about 20%. Interestingly, it does not fall by 50% because your remaining kidney grows in size and compensates for the other removed kidney.

A normal GFR in someone your age and gender with two healthy kidneys would be about 80 to 100 ml/minute. Based on the data you supplied, and using two different forumlas for estimating GFR, your GFR is currently 67 to 68 ml/min again well within the expected range for a kidney donor. Congratulations on donating a kidney to your husband. Hope he is doing well.

For more information:

Go to the Kidney Diseases health topic.