RENAL FUNCTION TEST PARAMETERS IN MALE FOOTBALL PLAYERS

Physical exercise decreases renal hemodynamics due to high demand of the skin and active muscle tissue. The aim of this study was to investigate the dynamics of renal function in male football players and to compare the values to that of the non-athletes of similar age. Employing purposeful sampling technique, 20 male football players and 20 non-athletes were recruited for this cross sectional study following inclusion and exclusion criteria. The university institutional review board (ABUTH/HREC/TRG/36) gave approval for all procedures in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Blood samples were taken at rest, to measured serum creatinine and urea concentrations and to estimate glomerular filtration rate (eGFR). The independent students-t-test was used to compare values between the two groups. The level of significance was set at P<0.05. Our result showed that there was no significant differences (p>0.05) in the serum creatinine (70.05 +/- 2.3 mu mol/l vs 65.45 +/- 4.1 mu mol/l), urea (2.90 +/- 0.1 mmol/l vs 2.77 +/- 0.1 mmol/l) and eGFR ((123.71 +/- 5.06 ml/min/1.73m2 vs 114.54 +/- 8.88 ml/min/1.73m2) between the male football players and non athletes. The absence of significance changes in these parameters suggests that, high intensity and frequency of footballing, not enough to evoke clinical changes in renal function. This observation has implications for sports physiology.