Impact of age on reference values for serum concentration of cystatin C in children

Recently, cystatin C (cyst C) was proposed for the assessment of glomerular filtration rate, being more accurate than creatinine determination. Reference intervals for cyst C do not vary with age and sex, like creatinine values. Elevated values of cyst C were reported for pre- and full-term infants. Nevertheless, the age cut-off for stable cyst C values i.e., age independence, remains under discussion. Therefore, we conducted a prospective study in 98 healthy children, 51 being under 18 months of age. Cyst C was determined by the nephelometric method. The infants under the age of 18 months had a higher mean serum cyst C value (0.94±0.24 mg/l) than the older children (0.65±0.19 mg/l). There was a negative correlation between age and cyst C in the infant group under the age of 18 months (r ²=0.631, P<0.01). Our results indicate that mean serum cyst C is higher in infants than older children; the age cut-off appears over the age of 1 year of life, presumably reflecting kidney maturation. Our study does not allow accurate assessment of the age cut-off at 18 months or 36 months. Received: 31 December 1999 / Revised: 10 October 2001 / Accepted: 11 October 2001