Indian Journal of Urology (Jan 2002)
Renal functional reserve in live related kidney donors
Abstract
Objectives: To determine the renal functional reserve in live related donors and compare it with that of normal controls. Patients and Methods: The study group consisted of 12 subjects who underwent donor nephrectomy at our cen-tre, more than 6 months prior to this study. The control group consisted of 12 healthy, age and sex-matched vol-unteers who had no previous history of renal disease. The test for renal, functional reserve consisted of a 2 hour base-line creatinine clearance followed by ingestion of 1.2 grains of protein per kg body weight, in the form of cooked red meat, over one hour: A subsequent 2-hour creatinine clearance starting one hour after the completion of pro-tein load was done. Urine collections were meticulously supervised and serum creatinine levels were obtained at the midpoint of each urine collection. Results: The rise in serum creatinine and creatinine clear-ance after protein loading was statistically significant in both donors and controls. The test used for estimation for renal, functional reserve was the percent change in creati-nine clearance after an acute protein load. This was 26.9 % in the donor population and 29.6 % in the controls. The difference between the 2 groups, therefore, was not statisti-cally significant. Conclusions: The preservation of renal functional re-serve implies that kidney donors are at no significant dis-advantage compared to normal healthy people, by virtue of their kidney donation.
