title: Cystatin C and renal function in pediatric kidney transplant recipients.
abstract: In clinical practice, the glomerular filtration rate (GFR) is often determined with serum creatinine. However, studies have shown cystatin C to be a better parameter for the diagnosis of impaired renal function. We compared GFR estimated by plasma cystatin C with GFR estimated by serum creatinine in a sample of 50 pediatric renal transplant recipients and 24 healthy children. The correlation between GFR estimated by serum creatinine and by cystatin C was significant (r = 0.75; P < 0.001, Person's correlation); however, in pediatric kidney transplant recipients, the GFR was 6.7 mL/min lower when determined using cystatin C rather than serum creatinine. Moreover, using GFR estimated by cystatin C we found that 42% of the pediatric kidney transplant recipients had an estimated GFR <60 mL.min-1.1.73 (m(2))-1, whereas when GFR was estimated by the serum creatinine formula only 16% of the children had values below this cutoff point indicative of chronic kidney disease (P < 0.001). We conclude that, in pediatric kidney transplant recipients, estimation of GFR yields lower values when cystatin C is used rather than serum creatinine.
authors.affiliation: Disciplina de Nefrologia, Departamento de Medicina, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Rua Botucatu, São Paulo, SP, Brasil. mdcfranco@nefro.epm.br
authors.forename: M C P
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Franco
authors.forename: S S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Nagasako
authors.forename: P G
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: Machado
authors.forename: P C K
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Nogueira
authors.forename: J O M
authors.initials: JO
authors.lastname: Pestana
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sesso
mesh_terms: D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D003404:Creatinine / Q000097:blood*; D055316:Cystatin C / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D005919:Glomerular Filtration Rate / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D016030:Kidney Transplantation / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D055316:Cystatin C; D003404:Creatinine