THE MEASUREMENT OF RENAL INJURY

The classical assessment of nephrotoxicity by the measurement of serum urea nitrogen and creatine is insensitive and nonspecific. Selection from a battery of clinical pathology tests allows the sensitive and sp ecific measurement of renal dysfunction and injury. This requires the collection of urine specimens of good technical quality, with appropri ate preservation. Interaction of the test article with urinary enzymes should be evaluated prior to their measurement for the assessment of tubular injury. This enables the localization and quantification of th e injury within the regions of the nephron. High resolution proton nuc lear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, a technique for measurement of l ow molecular weight metabolites, shows great promise for the evaluatio n of renal tubular injury in toxicologic studies.