Q: I am a 31 years old male suffering from high blood pressure. My serum creatine level rose to 7.0 mg/dl a few days back. I consulted a Nephrologist, who gave me some tablets which brought my serum creatine level down to 2.8 mg/dl. Are my kidneys at some risk?

A:Based on the information you provided, it seems you have 'hypertensive urgency' (meaning: very high blood pressure causing damage to body organs in a very short period of time) causing kidney function impairment. Creatinine is a blood test to follow the kidney function: the higher the creatinine, the worse is the kidney function. Your creatinine decreased from 7.0 mg/dl to 2.8 mg/dl (meaning improvement in kidney function) with controlling blood pressure. However, the normal creatinine level should be less than 1.5 mg/dl. Your current creatinine level of 2.8 mg/dl indicates that you probably has about 50% kidney function at this time. Please follow up with your nephrologist closely to rule out other causes of kidney impairment and to stabilise your kidney function by controlling all risk factors.