Born With One Kidney. What Could Be The Reason For Fluctuation In Serum Creatinine And Blood Urea Levels?

Posted on Mon, 2 Dec 2013

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Mon, 2 Dec 2013 Answered on

Fri, 20 Dec 2013 Last reviewed on

Question : Recently I came to know that I am born with one kidney then I went for several tests and all was normal. Now I am continuing all the tests on every 3 months and I have noticed my Serum Creatinine is coming down ( it went up because I had taken some pain killer) however my Blood Urea is going up. Blood Urea(May -2013): 15 Blood Urea(Aug -2013): 21 Blood Urea(Aug -2013): 25 Serum Creatinine (May -2013): 1.2 Serum Creatinine (Aug -2013): 0.9 Serum Creatinine (Aug -2013): 0.8 Can you please advise me what should I do:

Answered by Dr. Aditya Bhabhe (2 days later)

Brief Answer: See detailed answer Detailed Answer: Hi XXXXXXX Thank you for sending in your query. From the reports it looks like you have a single functioning right kidney. The good thing is that the serum creatinine reports are within normal limits and so is the 24 hour urine protein excretion. Blood urea levels are also within normal limits although the values have increased. Blood urea levels can be affected by the protein intake in the diet as well as fluid intake. In addition there can be upto 20% difference in 2 lab readings. So I would not worry too much about it. I would advise you to do the following: 1) Keep yourself well hydrated 2) Avoid use of painkillers like combiflam, brufen etc. See your doctor for a complete list of medications which are harmful to your kidneys 3) Check your blood pressure regularly 4) Repeat urea creatinine in next few days and keep monitoring it twice a year. Hope this was helpful Feel free to contact me if you have any other questions Regards Dr Bhabhe

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Prasad