title: [The value of fingernail creatinine measurement in the identification of acute and chronic renal failure].
abstract: It is difficult to distinguish acute renal failure (ARF) clinically from chronic renal failure (CRF), especially in the patients who do not have medical history records. Since fingernail creatinine (Ncr) reflects serum creatinine (Scr) at the time of nail formation, it has been suggested that Ncr level might represent that of Scr around 4 months previously. In this study, clipped fingernail specimens from 60 normal individuals (Scr 85.75 +/- 3.54 mumol/L), 35 patients with CRF (Scr 568.41 +/- 47.74 mumol/L) and 15 patients with ARF (Scr 123.60 +/- 17.29 mumol/L) were analyzed for creatinine by a standard alkaline picrate method. The results showed that Ncr level was significantly lower in the normal group (61.89 +/- 10.25 mumol/100g fingernail) than in the CRF group (130.04 +/- 34.55 mumol/100g fingernail) P less than 0.001. In the ARF group Ncr level (65.59 +/- 2.5 mumol/100g fingernail) was more or less the same as that in normal controls. It is concluded that Ncr measurement is of clinical value in identification of ARF.
authors.affiliation: Nephrology Center, Beijing Medical University.
authors.forename: J Z
authors.initials: JZ
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: H Y
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D058186:Acute Kidney Injury / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000378:metabolism*; D000328:Adult; D003404:Creatinine / Q000032:analysis* / Q000097:blood; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007676:Kidney Failure, Chronic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009262:Nails / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D003404:Creatinine