Cystatin-C levels in healthy children and adolescents: Influence of age, gender, body mass index and blood pressure

Cystatin-C is considered a more sensitive and specific marker of kidney function than creatinine since it can diagnose patients with earlier-stage of renal dysfunction. The aim of this study is to determine the levels of Cystatin-C in healthy children and adolescents as well as any correlations to age, gender, body-mass index (BMI) and blood pressure (BP). Cystatin-C was measured in 536 healthy Greek children and adolescents (295 males and 241 females) using a nephelometric immunoassay. Additionally, the age, body mass index and blood pressure was recorded for each subject. Overall, the mean serum Cystatin-C level was 0.79±0.10mg/L. Cystatin-C was found to be statistically significantly lower in females than in males (p