Influence of fish consumption on eGFR
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The influence of a cooked-fish meal on estimated glomerular filtration rate
IRAS ID
246870
Contact name
Edmund Lamb
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
n/a, n/a
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 2 months, 1 days
Research summary
The kidneys are a critical organ in the human body. Much research has gone into kidney disease and assessing the most appropriate and accurate ways of measuring kidney function; one way of doing so is by assessing the glomerular filtration rate, which is the rate at which the kidney is filtering waste products from the blood. To assess glomerular filtration a marker found in blood called creatinine is used. In recent years it has been found that levels of creatinine are affected by the muscle mass, diet, age and sex. A more sensitive way of measuring renal function is to use a calculation that takes into account serum creatinine, age, sex and ethnicity to calculate an estimated glomerular function rate (eGFR).
To measure an individual’s severity of kidney disease eGFR is used. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is increasingly recognised as a public health problem and there is considerable overlap between CKD, diabetes and cardiovascular disease, therefore requiring management by multidisciplinary teams. For this reason understanding factors that could affect eGFR is crucial. There have been previous studies showing cooked meat increases creatinine levels in blood and therefore decreases eGFR, with a potential impact on the diagnosis and staging of CKD. However there been no research on the impact of a meal containing fish. Misclassifying CKD patients may result in unnecessary concern to patients, additional investigations and referral of unsuitable patients to specialist renal clinics; which not only wastes specialists knowledge that could be used elsewhere but also can lead to cost implications.
For this reason, we are investigating the effects of fish containing meals on creatinine and eGFR. We aim to measure the serum samples of 15 healthy volunteers before a fish meal and then 1-2, 3-4 and 24 hours after eating a meal containing fish.
REC name
South Central - Hampshire A Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/SC/0273
Date of REC Opinion
23 May 2018
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion