title: [Serum cystatin C: a practical alternative for renal function evaluation?].
abstract: Glomerular filtration rate is the main marker of renal function in healthy individuals and patients. Despite incontestable advances in medicine, it is still difficult to define precisely this test in clinical practice. Early markers of renal lesion are important, because glomerular filtration rate usually decreases before the first chronic renal failure symptoms or signs appear. Cystatin C has been pointed as an alternative, but it was not tested in many diseases. Advantages and disadvantages of this marker are discussed. Although serum cystatin C determination is increasingly being used in clinical practice worldwide, its limitations as well as the conditions its use is in fact indicated are not adequately established; on the other hand serum creatinine (and creatinine clearance) is an easily available and low cost laboratory marker with well-known limitations that can be used routinely in the assessment of renal function.
authors.affiliation: Hospital do Servidor Público Estadual.
authors.forename: Ivana Cláudia
authors.initials: IC
authors.lastname: Gabriel
authors.forename: Sonia Kiyomi
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Nishida
authors.forename: Gianna Mastroianni
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Kirsztajn
mesh_terms: D055316:Cystatin C / Q000097:blood*; D005919:Glomerular Filtration Rate; D006801:Humans; D007674:Kidney Diseases / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis*; D007677:Kidney Function Tests / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D055316:Cystatin C