What is the Normal Serum Creatinine Level

Serum creatinine is an important index of renal function. Creatinine is the metabolic product of muscle. In normal cases, creatinine is filtrated out of body by kidneys. Therefore, it maintains a normal level in blood.

However, once the kidneys are damaged, they are not able to clear the creatinine in the blood. As a result, the serum creatinine level will rise. Abnormally high blood pressure may be a warning of kidney damage or renal failure. Therefore, knowing the normal serum creatinine level is very important for us.

The normal serum creatinine level is approximately 0.6~1.2 mg/dl in adult males and 0.5~1.1 mg/dl in adult females. As creatinine is the metabolic product of muscle, the creatinine level is also affected by the muscle mass. Muscular young people may have higher creatinine level than the normal level for the general people. On the contrary, the elders and people with amyotrophy, malnutrition, bodyweight loss and other heath problem have lower creatinine level for their poor muscle condition. For infants, their normal creatinine level is 0.2 mg/dl or higher, which may have a little difference for their muscle development condition. However, the normal creatinine level may vary slightly with different lab. Therefore, the patients should know the specific reference level.


Besides kidney damage, there are also some other reasons for high serum creatinine level such as eating a mass of meat, intensive exercise for a long time, muscle trauma. In these cases, the serum creatinine just keeps higher than normal for a short time. Once those factors are eliminated, their serum creatinine level will recover normal. Therefore, the patients do not need treatment. If these causes are excluded, the high serum creatinine level is very likely to be caused by Kidney Disease. In this case, you should go to see a doctor at once and find out the specific cause and receive relative treatment at once.