Assessment of renal function in persons with motor complete spinal cord injury—cystatin C as an accurate single marker

Individuals with spinal cord injuries are at a higher risk for renal complications, including chronic kidney disease, due to factors like bladder dysfunction, recurrent UTIs, and the use of nephrotoxic antibiotics. Traditional methods of assessing kidney function, such as using serum creatinine levels, may be inaccurate in SCI patients due to decreased muscle mass, which affects creatinine levels. Cystatin C, a protein produced in all human nucleated cells, offers a more accurate alternative for estimating GFR in SCI patients, as its levels are not influenced by muscle mass.

• 1
  Serum Creatinine significantly overestimated GFR by over 50.6% in SCI patients.
• 2
  Estimated GFR using Serum Cystatin C showed a meager mean difference of 0.5% from the reference 24-h urine creatinine clearance.
• 3
  A significant proportion of patients (63.33%) had GFR values below the normal range (90 ml/min), indicating a substantial burden of renal failure in this group of patients.