[WeatherNurse13]

Creatinine & BUN levels that raise concern?

by WeatherNurse13 on Wed Jul 09, 2014 3:28 pm

Just wondering how high the serum creatinine and BUN levels become before one becomes suspicious and or concerned about kidney health / function?

Also, how often do most of you have a 24 hour urine?

[Multibilly]

Re: Creatinine & BUN levels that raise concern?

by Multibilly on Thu Jul 10, 2014 9:50 am

The trend of a given marker is what often piques my hematologist's interest in general. If a marker is trending in a given direction and is approaching one of the normal limits of that market, then that is what raises his concern level. It also seems that he looks at all of the kidney-related numbers for a total renal picture (BUN, Creatinine, GFR and BUN/Creatinine Ratio).

I've had a couple of situations where my kidney markers went south and it ended up just being due to either dehydration or over-hydration during a long backpack trip just before my labwork. The doc figured this out by looking at the total combo of the above markers.

I don't do 24 hour UPEPs any more (yeah!) since I have a peculiar situation where my kidneys reject my free light chains ... but that's not the norm. If one is doing a serum freelite chain assay and you are also monitoring serum BUN, Creatinine and GFR, are 24 hour UPEPs really even necessary? Even before they figured out my peculiar handling of free light chains, my doc wasn't ordering 24-hour UPEPs for me ... not until I asked him to do one for the heck of it.

[Wayne K]

Re: Creatinine & BUN levels that raise concern?

by Wayne K on Thu Jul 10, 2014 10:35 am

I do 24 hr tests every visit, which is monthly now, up from quarterly. I think that is something that a doctor will determine based on age and type of multiple myeloma.