Therefore, the aim of this study was to generate age- and sex-specific serum creatinine reference limits using data from a hospital-based database for clinical use among children in Taiwan and even other countries in East Asia. Once established, creatinine values above the URLs could alert clinicians to further evaluate the patient's renal function to avoid iatrogenic kidney injury, such as monitoring medications and fluid status. Therefore, it is crucial to establish serum creatinine level reference limits for a particular pediatric population, especially for those who are hospitalized. However, using this can lead to underestimation of abnormal renal function in infants and toddlers. For example, the reference cited by the Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics, which most general pediatricians use, states that the serum creatinine URL is 0.50 mg/dL for children under 4 years of age ( 3, 4). Thus, reference ranges presented in broad age groups (such as 0–4, 4–7, and 7–10 years old) would be insufficient to use clinically for children. From 1 month of age, serum creatinine increases gradually with age in children because of an increase in muscle mass, and consequently the level differs every year. Other than glomerular filtration rate (GFR), muscle mass has a strong influence on serum creatinine level ( 2). Serum creatinine is an extremely useful index when it comes to assessing renal function ( 1).

Our results will aid physicians in clinical practice regarding renal function evaluation, especially for patients without a recent baseline serum creatinine level. The upper reference limits (URLs), which are particularly useful in clinical practice, followed the natural trend of increasing serum creatinine with age.Ĭonclusion: We generated serum creatinine reference limits from a single hospital-integrated medical database in Taiwan for different age- and sex-specific groups of children. Creatinine level reference limits for each age- and sex-specific group were generated. After applying the exclusion criteria, 27,911 individuals with a single corresponding serum creatinine measurement were enrolled. Results: Serum creatinine data of individuals aged between 1 month and 18 years from May 2011 to January 2018 were retrieved. The remaining creatinine measurements in each group were analyzed, and 95% reference limits were established. Due to the possibility of having acute kidney injury or chronic kidney disease, individuals with multiple serum creatinine measurements were excluded, and outliers in each age- and sex-specific group were also subsequently removed. Study Design: Data on serum creatinine levels were obtained from the National Taiwan University Hospital-integrated Medical Database (NTUH-iMD).

Objective: To assess age- and sex-specific serum creatinine levels in a pediatric population using a hospital-based database in Taiwan. Department of Pediatrics, National Taiwan University Children's Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.Gwo-Tsann Chuang I-Jung Tsai * Yong-Kwei Tsau

Buncr normal range for males