Value of serum cystatin C as a marker of renal function in the early post kidney transplant period

Management of renal transplant patients requires periodic measurement of renal function especially in early post-transplant period. This is usually assessed by measuring the cretonne clearance, but because of its limitations, it is not an ideal marker for assessing the renal function. Serum Cyst tin C (sCyC) appears to be an endogenous marker of glomerular filtration rate (GFR). To assess the use of sCyC as a marker of renal function in kidney transplant patients, we compared it with serum cretonne (sCr) and 24-hour urine cretonne clearance (CrCl) in the first week post-transplantation. Among 60 patients (62.8 % men, 37.2 % women) undergoing kidney transplantation (average age: 44.87 ± 13.37 years), we determined renal function at 1, 3, 5, and 7 days after kidney transplantation using: sCr, sCyC and CrCl in a 24-hours urine specimen. During the first 5 days following transplantation, there was a progressive decline in sCr levels. In the first 5 days, post transplantation we could not find good correlation between CrC and sCyC, and the sCyC increased during these 5 days, but after that in day 7, there was a good correlation between CrC and sCyC which is coinciding with decreasing the dose of steroid (r = .625). Therefore, we recommend using sCyC may be used as a marker of renal function after one-week post kidney transplantation.