Biosensing methods for determination of creatinine: A review

Creatinine is a metabolic product of creatine phosphate in muscles, which provides energy to muscle tissues. Creatinine has been considered as indicator of renal function specifically after dialysis, thyroid malfunction and muscle damage. The normal level of creatinine in the serum and its excretion through urine in apparently healthy individuals is 45-140 mu M and 0.8-2.0 gm/day respectively. The level of creatinine reaches >1000 mu M in serum during renal, thyroid and kidney dysfunction or muscle disorder. A number of conventional methods such as colorimetric, spectrophotometric and chromatographic are available for determination of creatinine. Besides the advantages of being highly sensitive and selective, these methods have some drawbacks like time-consuming, requirement of sample pre-treatment, high cost instrumental set-up and skilled persons to operate. The sensors/biosensors overcome these drawbacks, as these are fast, easy, cost effective and highly sensitive. This review article describes the classification, operating principles, merits and demerits of various creatinine sensors/biosensors, specifically nanomaterials based biosensors. Creatinine biosensors work optimally within 2-900 s, potential range 0.1-1.0 V, pH range 4.0-10.0, temperature range 25-35 degrees C and had linear range, 0.004-30000 mu M for creatinine with the detection limit between 0.01.01 mu M and 520 mu M. These biosensors measured creatinine level in sera and urine samples and had storage stability between 4 and 390 days, while being stored thy at 4 degrees C. The future perspective for further improvement and commercialization of creatinine biosensors are discussed.