OBJECTIVE Vitamin K (VK) dependent carboxylation of matrix Gla protein (MGP) protects the macrocirculation against calcification. Whether glomerular filtration (GFR), a renal microvascular trait, is related to circulating desphospho-uncarboxylated MGP (dp-ucMGP) has not been explored before. We therefore investigated our hypothesis in our Flemish Study on Environment, Genes and Health Outcomes ...

Kidney damage occurs in more than half of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).1 The glomerular filtration rate (GFR) is the most important marker of renal function and crucial for diagnosis, stratification and response to treatment.2 The ideal marker of GFR should be constantly produced, be freely filtered, not reabsorbed or secreted by the renal tubules or metabolized or eliminate...

BACKGROUND Assessment of glomerular filtration rate (GFR) by common creatininebasedmethods is potentially inaccurate in patients with cirrhosis. Cirrhoticpatients have several underlying conditions that contribute to falsely low serumcreatinine concentrations, even in the presence of moderate to severe renalimpairment. Therefore creatinine-based methods usually overestimate trueGFR in these pat...

Rationale & ObjectiveCreatinine based GFR estimating (eGFRcr) equations may be inaccurate in populations with acute or chronic illness. Accuracy of that use cystatin C (eGFRcys) creatinine-cystatin (eGFRcr-cys) is not well studied these populations.Study DesignSystematic review original articles identified from PubMed and expert sources. Two reviewers screened independently those meeting inclus...

Background—Renal function is an important risk marker for morbidity and mortality in chronic heart failure (CHF) and is often estimated with the use of creatinine-based formulas. However, these formulas have never been validated in a wide range of CHF patients. We validated 3 commonly used formulas estimating glomerular filtration rate (GFR) with true GFR in CHF patients. Furthermore, we compar...

BACKGROUND Fatty acid-binding protein 4 (FABP4) has been linked to metabolic syndrome development, diabetes, and arteriosclerosis, but the role of FABP4 in target organ damage has not been assessed. We evaluated whether plasma FABP4 is associated with renal dysfunction in type 2 diabetic patients. METHODS In 263 individuals (161 type 2 diabetic patients and 102 healthy nondiabetic controls), ...

BACKGROUND The plasma level of cystatin C is a better marker than plasma creatinine for successful aging. It has been assumed that the advantage of cystatin C is not only due to it being a better marker for glomerular filtration rate (GFR) than creatinine, but also because an inflammatory state of a patient induces a raised cystatin C level. However, the observations of an association between c...

BACKGROUND In older adults, current equations to estimate glomerular filtration rate (GFR) are not validated and may misclassify elderly persons in terms of their stage of chronic kidney disease. OBJECTIVE To derive the Berlin Initiative Study (BIS) equation, a novel estimator of GFR in elderly participants. DESIGN Cross-sectional. Data were split for analysis into 2 sets for equation devel...

We determined plasma concentrations of cystatin C, beta2-microglobulin - beta2-MG (low molecular mass protein markers of glomerular filtration rate - GFR), creatinine (marker of GFR) and urinary N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminidase (NAG) excretion (marker of glomerular and tubular dysfunction) in 41 non-insulin-dependent diabetic patients. A significant increase of all the measured parameters (p<0.0...

To the Editor: In a recent report (1 ), we provided data on the early follow-up of renal function by plasma cystatin C in transplanted adults. Cystatin C was found to be an alternative and more sensitive marker of acute changes in glomerular filtration rate (GFR) than plasma creatinine, especially during acute rejection episodes. We present here some additional data on the same group of patient...