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Intel Lab Diagnostics Dubai
Single Biomarker

Estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate (eGFR)

Kidney Filtration Rate

eGFR estimates how well your kidneys filter waste from the blood. It is calculated from your serum creatinine, age, sex, and race, and is the best overall indicator of kidney function.

BLOOD24 HOURSNO FASTING
AEDAED60
  • Free home collection
  • Physician-reviewed report

24 Hours

Turnaround

Blood

Sample

About This Test

What the Estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate (eGFR) test tells you

The estimated glomerular filtration rate is not measured directly. It is calculated by the laboratory from your serum creatinine together with your age and sex, using a validated equation from the CKD-EPI family. The calculation translates a chemistry value that is hard to read on its own into a functional estimate of how much blood your kidneys are clearing of waste. That translation is what makes eGFR so widely used: the same creatinine means something quite different in a young muscular man and in an elderly woman, and the equation adjusts for that.

Because it puts kidney function on a common scale, eGFR underpins a great deal of everyday medicine. It is the number used to place chronic kidney disease into stages, to decide when a referral to a kidney specialist is appropriate, and to set safe doses of medicines the kidneys clear. It is also the number doctors watch over years, since a gradual downward drift carries more meaning than any one result. Modern equations no longer apply a race-based adjustment, so results calculated recently may not line up exactly with older ones on your records.

One reduced eGFR does not equal chronic kidney disease. That diagnosis requires reduced filtration or evidence of kidney damage that persists over months, which is why your doctor will usually repeat the test and add a urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio to look for protein leaking through the filters. Temporary dips are common during dehydration, infection or after starting certain medicines, and they often recover. Conversely a higher-than-expected eGFR is not automatically reassuring, since low muscle mass produces a low creatinine and therefore an overestimate of kidney function.

Sample type
Blood
Turnaround
24 Hours
Fasting
Not required
Best for
Adults & teens
Why Get Tested?

Recommended for anyone with risk factors for kidney disease (diabetes, hypertension, family history) and as a routine part of metabolic panels for adults.

  • Overall kidney function

    It is the single best routine indicator of how well your kidneys are filtering, expressed on a scale that can be compared between people.

  • Staging kidney disease

    Doctors use it to categorise chronic kidney disease and to decide how closely kidney function needs to be watched.

  • Guiding drug doses

    Many medicines and contrast agents need dose adjustment or avoidance when filtration is reduced, and this is the number used to decide.

  • Tracking change over time

    Serial results show whether kidney function is stable or declining, which matters far more than any single reading.

When This Test Is Ordered

Reasons your doctor may request the Estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate (eGFR) test

Your doctor may order this test for any of the reasons below. Some are routine checks, others follow specific symptoms or an earlier result.

  • Routine adult screening

    • As part of a routine adult metabolic screen.

  • Risk factors & family history

    • Living with diabetes, high blood pressure or established cardiovascular disease.
    • A family history of kidney disease or a known inherited kidney condition.

  • Known kidney disease & medication

    • Monitoring diagnosed chronic kidney disease at intervals set by your doctor.
    • Before contrast imaging or before starting a medicine that stresses the kidneys.
    • Long-term use of anti-inflammatory painkillers, lithium or other drugs that can affect kidney function.
Preparation
The short version
No prep needed.
  • Blood
  • Free home collection
  • No fasting
  • Results in 24 Hours
  1. 1
    Book any time

    No fasting window: pick any slot that suits you, online or on WhatsApp.

  2. 2
    We come to you

    A DHA-licensed nurse collects your sample at home or in the office: free home collection.

  3. 3
    Results in 24 Hours

    A physician-reviewed, easy-to-read report lands securely by WhatsApp and email.

Prep note
Physician reviewed

No fasting is needed, since this result is calculated from a routine blood sample.

To make it as accurate as possible, avoid a large meat or offal meal and any unusually heavy exercise the day before, because both raise creatinine and lower the calculated rate. Drink fluids as you normally would rather than arriving dehydrated.

Tell the team if you take creatine or bodybuilding supplements, anti-inflammatory painkillers, or any medicine started in the past few weeks, and mention pregnancy, a limb amputation or a muscle-wasting condition, because each of these affects how the estimate should be read. If you are being monitored over time, try to give the sample at a similar time of day and in a similar state of health each visit, and mention any recent illness or hospital stay.

Reading a High or Low Result

  • What a higher result can point to

    • Low muscle mass, which produces a low creatinine and therefore an overestimated filtration rate.
    • Glomerular hyperfiltration, which can occur early in diabetes and in significant obesity.
    • Pregnancy, which increases blood volume and kidney blood flow.
    • Younger age, since filtration is naturally higher in early adulthood and declines gradually thereafter.
    • Limb amputation or a prolonged period of immobility that has reduced total muscle bulk.

  • What a lower result can point to

    • Chronic kidney disease arising from diabetes, high blood pressure or glomerular disease.
    • Acute kidney injury from dehydration, severe infection, low blood pressure or blood loss.
    • Obstruction to urine flow, for example from stones or an enlarged prostate.
    • Medicines that reduce filtration or damage kidney tissue, including some anti-inflammatories, antibiotics and contrast agents.
    • A large muscle mass, creatine supplements or a heavy meat meal, which raise creatinine and depress the estimate without any kidney problem.
    • The gradual decline in filtration that accompanies normal ageing.

These are possibilities, not diagnoses. A single value outside the reference range is interpreted alongside your symptoms, history and other tests: your doctor decides what it means for you.

Limitations & Safety

What this test cannot tell you

  • It is an estimate rather than a measurement, and it is least reliable at the extremes of body composition, after amputation, in pregnancy and in people with very high or very low muscle mass.
  • The equation assumes creatinine is stable, so it is unreliable while kidney function is changing rapidly, such as during acute kidney injury.
  • Filtration alone does not describe kidney health; a urine albumin measurement is needed to detect damage that has not yet reduced filtration.

Risks of the blood draw

  • Mild bruising or brief soreness where the needle went in.
  • Occasional lightheadedness, which settles after a few minutes of rest.
  • Bleeding or infection at the site, which is rare with sterile single-use equipment.
Key Points
  • 1eGFR is calculated from creatinine, age and sex, not measured directly.
  • 2It moves in the opposite direction to creatinine: as creatinine rises, eGFR falls.
  • 3Chronic kidney disease requires a reduced result or evidence of damage that persists over months, not a single low value.
  • 4Anything that alters creatinine, including muscle mass and diet, alters the estimate too.
  • 5Current equations no longer include a race adjustment, so older results may not be directly comparable.
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Frequently Asked Questions

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Small variation is normal because the calculation depends on creatinine, which shifts with hydration, diet, exercise and everyday biological variation. Your doctor looks at the trend across several results rather than reacting to a single change.