The purpose of this study is to investigate the exact role of Acetylcysteine (Mucomyst) in
altering creatinine clearance. Prior studies have shown the protective effects of
Acetylcysteine on contrast-induced renal dysfunction. In these studies, Acetylcysteine
lowered the incidence of serum creatinine elevation after administration of radiographic
contrast agents. Not only was the increase in serum creatinine prevented, the studies also
demonstrated a significant increase in creatinine clearance after administration of the
agent. These prior studies did not evaluate if the increase in creatinine clearance was
indeed from a protective benefit of Acetylcysteine in preserving the GFR versus simply
increasing the proximal tubular creatinine secretion without actually affecting the GFR. We
propose an experiment to help support our hypothesis that Acetylcysteine increases creatinine
clearance via an increase in proximal tubular secretion of creatinine.