Mortality prediction by acute kidney injury biomarkers in comparison with serum creatinine.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the performance of acute kidney injury (AKI) biomarkers for mortality prediction. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Cutoff values of urinary L-type fatty acid-binding protein (L-FABP) and N-acetyl-ß-d-glucosaminidase (NAG) for AKI diagnosis in ICU were determined in the derivation cohort. The performance of these AKI biomarkers for mortality prediction was evaluated in the validation cohort with stratification of serum-creatinine based AKI diagnosis. RESULTS: Mortality in the AKI patients diagnosed by serum creatinine was increased remarkably when urinary L-FABP and NAG were positive. CONCLUSIONS: These AKI biomarkers can specifically detect high-risk patients among creatinine-base diagnosed AKI.

Response to different furosemide doses predicts AKI progression in ICU patients with elevated plasma NGAL levels.

BACKGROUND: Furosemide responsiveness (FR) is determined by urine output after furosemide administration and has recently been evaluated as a furosemide stress test (FST) for predicting severe acute kidney injury (AKI) progression. Although a standardized furosemide dose is required for FST, variable dosing is typically employed based on illness severity, including renal dysfunction in the clinical setting. This study aimed to evaluate whether FR with different furosemide doses can predict AKI progression. We further evaluated the combination of an AKI biomarker, plasma neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL), and FR for predicting AKI progression. RESULTS: We retrospectively analyzed 95 patients who were treated with bolus furosemide in our medical-surgical intensive care unit. Patients who had already developed AKI stage 3 were excluded. A total of 18 patients developed AKI stage 3 within 1 week. Receiver operating curve analysis revealed that the area under the curve (AUC) values of FR and plasma NGAL were 0.87 (0.73-0.94) and 0.80 (0.67-0.88) for AKI progression, respectively. When plasma NGAL level was < 142 ng/mL, only one patient developed stage 3 AKI, indicating that plasma NGAL measurements were sufficient to predict AKI progression. We further evaluated the performance of FR in 51 patients with plasma NGAL levels > 142 ng/mL. FR was associated with AUC of 0.84 (0.67-0.94) for AKI progression in this population with high NGAL levels. CONCLUSIONS: Although different variable doses of furosemide were administered, FR revealed favorable efficacy for predicting AKI progression even in patients with high plasma NGAL levels. This suggests that a combination of FR and biomarkers can stratify the risk of AKI progression in a clinical setting.

IMPACT OF CONTINUOUS RENAL REPLACEMENT THERAPY INTENSITY ON SEPTIC ACUTE KIDNEY INJURY.

The intensity of continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) for acute kidney injury (AKI) has been evaluated, but recent randomized clinical trials have failed to demonstrate a beneficial impact of high intensity on the outcomes. High intensity might cause some detrimental results recognized recently as CRRT trauma. This study was undertaken to evaluate the association of CRRT intensity with mortality in a population of AKI patients treated with lower-intensity CRRT in Japan. A retrospective single-center cohort study enrolled 125 AKI patients treated with CRRT in mixed intensive care units of a university hospital in Japan. Subanalysis was conducted for septic and postsurgical AKI. The median value of the prescribed total effluent rate was 20.1 (interquartile range 15.3-27.1) mL/kg/h. Overall, univariate Cox regression analysis indicated no association of the CRRT intensity with the 60-day in-hospital mortality rate (hazard ratio 1.006, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.991-1.018, P = 0.343). In subanalysis with the septic AKI patients, multivariate analysis revealed two factors associated independently with the 60-day mortality rate: the Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score at initiation of CRRT (hazard ratio 1.152, 95% CI 1.025-1.301, P = 0.0171) and the CRRT intensity (hazard ratio 1.024, 95% CI 1.004-1.042, P = 0.0195). The CRRT intensity was associated significantly with higher 60-day in-hospital mortality in septic AKI, suggesting that unknown detrimental effects of CRRT with high-intensity CRRT might worsen the outcomes in septic AKI patients.