[Is it possible to use creatinine for following the development of renal insufficiency?]

Accurate methods of measuring glomerular filtration rate are usually considered as expansive and time consuming. Therefore, alternative methods (creatinine clearance, either calculated or measured, reciprocal plasma creatinine, slopes of creatinine vs time) have frequently been used to assess the rate of progression of renal failure and predict the time of dialysis. The present review underlines the limitations of such techniques frequently underestimated in recent trials intending to evaluate the potential benefit of protein restriction. It delimitates the restrictive conditions in which such methods could be used for clinical but not research purposes.