What Do My Lab Test Results Indicate?

Posted on Mon, 8 Aug 2016

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

Mon, 8 Aug 2016 Answered on

Mon, 29 Aug 2016 Last reviewed on

Question : I am a diabetic with hypertension. I had a CMP today. Creatinine was 1.2. This is down from 1.24 on my last test 5/31/16. My doctor calculated egfr to be 49 up from 47 on 5/31/16. Is this improvement?

Answered by Dr. Ravi Bansal (11 hours later)

Brief Answer:
results are stable

Detailed Answer:

Hi Jalin,

you probably have a early diabetic nephropathy with hypertension.

serum creatinine test is done by modified jaffes reaction ( kinetic method) by analyzer machines. now these machines have an inherent intra assay variability of 5%. So this means that if you put the same blood sample in the machine again it can give a variability of 5% . change from 1.24 to 1.2 means 0.04 which is even less than 4 %.

But nevertheless this shows a trend towards improvement and if the next reading is further improved next time then it shows a positive trend.

apart from this even if the creatinine remains the same over next few years , it is an achievement as these diseases are self progressive.

best wishes.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Priyanka G Raj

Follow up: Dr. Ravi Bansal (5 hours later)

I have had diabetes for 42 years. Is this a factor

Answered by Dr. Ravi Bansal (5 hours later)

Brief Answer:
Diabetes is a common cause of kidney disease

Detailed Answer:
Hi,

After 10 years of diabetes, 30 to 40 % of patients will develop kidney disease. Generally these are self progressive and lead to slow deterioration of kidney function - upto 5% each year. But with good control of blood pressure and sugar levels the progression can be delayed.

Best wishes

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Prasad