Day-to-day variation of urinary NGAL and rational for creatinine correction

The number of clinical studies evaluating the new tubular biomarker urinary neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (U-NGAL) in urine are increasing. There is no consensus whether absolute U-NGAL concentrations or urinary NGAL/creatinine (U-NGAL/Cr) ratios should be used when chronic tubular dysfunction is studied. The aim was to study the biological variation of U-NGAL in healthy subjects and the rational for urinary creatinine (U-Cr) correction in two different study samples.

To study biological variation of U-NGAL and U-NGAL/Cr ratio and the association between U-NGAL and U-Cr in healthy subjects 13 young males and females (median age 29 years) collected morning urine in 10 consecutive days. Additionally, a random subsample of 400 males from a population-based cohort (aged 78 years) collecting 24-hour urine during 1 day was studied.

The calculated biological variation for absolute U-NGAL was 27% and for U-NGAL/Cr ratio, 101%. Absolute U-NGAL increased linearly with U-Cr concentration (the theoretical basis for creatinine adjustment) in the older males (R=0.19, P<0.001) and with borderline significance in the young adults (R=0.16, P=0.08). The U-NGAL/Cr ratio was, however, negatively associated with creatinine in the older males (R=-0.14, P<0.01) and in the young adults (R=-0.16, P=0.07) indicating a slight "overadjustment."

The study provides some support for the use of U-NGAL/Cr ratio but the rather large biological variation and risk of possible overadjustment need to be considered. Both absolute U-NGAL and U-NGAL/Cr ratios should be reported for the estimation of chronic tubular dysfunction.