In The News: GFR from Creatinine and cystatin C

Cystatin C has been eyed as the novel troponin of the kidney attack in recent years. CKD-EPI equation has slowly emerged as another player in the equations that are used to measure GFR.  A recent publication in NEJM discusses three equations

1. CKD-EPI creatinine based
2. CKD-EPI cystatin C based
3. CKD-EPI creatinine and cystatin C based

The third one listed performed the best with more precision and accuracy for GFR <60.
It was across range of GFRs and subgroups and demographics and lower BMIs( which the prior methods were deficient in)
Certain limitations that the authors do mention are: no racial or ethnic minorities other than AA were used in the development so can't be used for others. No transplant patients were included in the analysis.

Nevertheless, we are slowly and surely reaching a new troponin for the kidney attack.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22762315