A study of urinary creatinine and creatinine coefficient in healthy young adults

Daily urinary creatinine excretion and creatinine coefficient of eighty-four healthy medical students have been studied for three consecutive days. Daily creatinine excretion has been observed to be higher in the male subjects compared to the female counterparts. Creatinine excretion has been observed to be dependent on body weight of the subjects. The variability from subject to subject was higher than observed by most other workers. Day to day consistency within the same subject was rather low. Creatinine coefficient was computed per kg of body weight as well as per kg of lean body weight. In both the cases, it has been found to be higher in the males than in the females. Though an important factor, yet body weight of a subject alone could not explain satisfactorily wide variability of creatinine excretion in the present study. The possible influencing factors have been discussed along with clinical implications.