Assessment of the renal angina index for the prediction of acute kidney injury in patients admitted to a European pediatric intensive care unit.

BACKGROUND: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is associated with worse outcomes and increased morbidity and mortality in pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) patients. The renal angina index (RAI) has been proposed as an early prediction tool for AKI development. OBJECTIVES: The objective was to evaluate outcomes of RAI-positive patients and to compare RAI performance with traditional AKI markers across different patient groups (medical/post-surgical). This was an observational retrospective study. All children admitted to a tertiary hospital PICU over a 3-year period were included. Electronic medical records were reviewed. Day 1 RAI was calculated, as was the presence and staging of day 3 AKI. RESULTS: A total of 593 patients were included; 56% were male, the mean age was 55 months, and 17% had a positive RAI. This was associated with day 3 AKI development and worse outcomes, such as greater need for kidney replacement therapy, longer duration of mechanical ventilation, vasoactive support and PICU stay, and higher mortality. For all-stage kidney injury, RAI presented a sensitivity of 87.5% and a specificity of 88.1%. Prediction of day 3 all-stage AKI by RAI had an AUC=0.878; its performance increased for severe AKI (AUC = 0.93). RAI was superior to serum creatinine increase and KDIGO AKI staging on day 1 in predicting severe AKI development. The performance remained high irrespective of the type of admission. CONCLUSIONS: The RAI is a simple and inexpensive tool that can be used with medical and post-surgical PICU patients to predict AKI development and anticipate complications, allowing for the adoption of preventive measures.

Type 1 diabetes mellitus - Population characterization and metabolic control outcomes in a Portuguese patient sample.

AIMS: To characterize a cohort of T1D patients and to compare diabetes control between patients using different regimen of insulin therapy and glucose monitoring. METHODS: Were included all T1D patients followed at the Pediatric Endocrinology Unit, between April 1st and June 30th, 2021. Several clinical and demographic variables were analyzed. RESULTS: Our sample included 208 patients, 56.7 % males, mean age of 12.7 ± 4.6 years. The median HbA1c was 7.3 %. Most patients, 78.8% were treated with continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (CSII) and 81.3 % used continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). CSII had a lower HbAc compared with multiple daily injections (MDI) users (7.1vs 8.1 %, p < 0.01). In the CSII group, those who used CGM had a lower HbAc (7.1 vs 7.5 %,p = 0.02). Analyzing the data of the ambulatory glucose report, the CSII users had a lower glucose management indicator, (7.2 % vs 7.6 %, p < 0.01), more time in range (58.0 % vs 52.4 %;p < 0.01) and less time above range > 250 mg/dL (12.4 % vs 20.5 %;p < 0.01) than MDI users. CONCLUSIONS: The median HbA1c was 7.3% very close to the recommended target. In Portugal, pediatric patients can access a CSII provided by the national health service and a CGM system due to an elevated reimbursement of their cost. This healthy policy allows us to achieve better goals without the risk of hypoglycemia.