Urinary Excretion of Creatinine of Children under Different Nutritional Conditions

The twenty-four-hour urinary excretion of creatinine per centimeter of body height was studied in three groups of children in Guatemala. Twenty-three came from an urban upper socioeconomic group and were adequately nourished; eight were from a rural lower socioeconomic group and twenty-two were patients with kwashiorkor. The data from the adequately nourished children coincided with those for healthy North American children, indicating their relative muscle mass to be similar. The children from the rural group and those with kwashiorkor excreted much less creatinine per centimeter of body height. The results indicate that in Guatemala, economically and nutritionally underprivileged children without overt malnutrition do not differ radically in the magnitude of protein depletion, as indicated by creatinine excretion, from those with kwashiorkor. With recovery from kwashiorkor, a marked increase was observed in the creatinine excretion of the patients with kwashiorkor, but in the majority levels normal for their age were not reached even after six to eighteen months of treatment.