Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a frequent complication of cardiac surgery and increases morbidity and mortality. The identification of reliable biomarkers that allow earlier diagnosis of AKI in the postoperative period may increase the success of therapeutic interventions. Here, we conducted a prospective, multicenter cohort study involving 1219 adults undergoing cardiac surgery to evaluate whether early postoperative measures of urine IL-18, urine neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL), or plasma NGAL could identify which patients would develop AKI and other adverse patient outcomes. Urine IL-18 and urine and plasma NGAL levels peaked within 6 hours after surgery. After multivariable adjustment, the highest quintiles of urine IL-18 and plasma NGAL associated with 6.8-fold and 5-fold higher odds of AKI, respectively, compared with the lowest quintiles. Elevated urine IL-18 and urine and plasma NGAL levels associated with longer length of hospital stay, longer intensive care unit stay, and higher risk for dialysis or death. The clinical prediction model for AKI had an area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.69. Urine IL-18 and plasma NGAL significantly improved the AUC to 0.76 and 0.75, respectively. Urine IL-18 and plasma NGAL significantly improved risk prediction over the clinical models alone as measured by net reclassification improvement (NRI) and integrated discrimination improvement (IDI). In conclusion, urine IL-18, urine NGAL, and plasma NGAL associate with subsequent AKI and poor outcomes among adults undergoing cardiac surgery. (Clinical Trials.gov number, NCT00774137).

Current methods for predicting graft recovery after kidney transplantation are not reliable. We performed a prospective, multicenter, observational cohort study of deceased-donor kidney transplant patients to evaluate urinary neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL), IL-18, and kidney injury molecule-1 (KIM-1) as biomarkers for predicting dialysis within 1 wk of transplant and subsequent graft recovery. We collected serial urine samples for 3 d after transplant and analyzed levels of these putative biomarkers. We classified graft recovery as delayed graft function (DGF), slow graft function (SGF), or immediate graft function (IGF). Of the 91 patients in the cohort, 34 had DGF, 33 had SGF, and 24 had IGF. Median NGAL and IL-18 levels, but not KIM-1 levels, were statistically different among these three groups at all time points. ROC curve analysis suggested that the abilities of NGAL or IL-18 to predict dialysis within 1 wk were moderately accurate when measured on the first postoperative day, whereas the fall in serum creatinine (Scr) was not predictive. In multivariate analysis, elevated levels of NGAL or IL-18 predicted the need for dialysis after adjusting for recipient and donor age, cold ischemia time, urine output, and Scr. NGAL and IL-18 quantiles also predicted graft recovery up to 3 mo later. In summary, urinary NGAL and IL-18 are early, noninvasive, accurate predictors of both the need for dialysis within the first week of kidney transplantation and 3-mo recovery of graft function.

In this multicenter, prospective study of 288 children (half under 2 years of age) undergoing cardiac surgery, we evaluated whether the measurement of pre- and postoperative serum cystatin C (CysC) improves the prediction of acute kidney injury (AKI) over that obtained by serum creatinine (SCr). Higher preoperative SCr-based estimated glomerular filtration rates predicted higher risk of the postoperative primary outcomes of stage 1 and 2 AKI (adjusted odds ratios (ORs) 1.5 and 1.9, respectively). Preoperative CysC was not associated with AKI. The highest quintile of postoperative (within 6 h) CysC predicted stage 1 and 2 AKI (adjusted ORs of 6 and 17.2, respectively). The highest tertile of percent change in CysC independently predicted AKI, whereas the highest tertile of SCr predicted stage 1 but not stage 2 AKI. Postoperative CysC levels independently predicted longer duration of ventilation and intensive care unit length of stay, whereas the postoperative SCr change only predicted longer intensive care unit stay. Thus, postoperative serum CysC is useful to risk-stratify patients for AKI treatment trials. More research, however, is needed to understand the relation between preoperative renal function and the risk of AKI.

Background Acute kidney injury (AKI) following cardiac surgery is associated with poor outcomes, but is challenging to predict from information available prior to surgery. Study Design Prospective cohort study Setting & Participants The TRIBE-AKI Consortium enrolled 1,147 adults undergoing cardiac surgery at six hospitals from 2007–2009; participants were selected for high AKI risk. Predictors Pre-surgical cystatin C, creatinine, and creatinine-based estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) were categorized into quintiles and grouped as ‘Best’ (quintiles 1–2), ‘Intermediate’ (quintiles 3–4), and ‘Worst’ (quintile 5) kidney function. Outcomes The primary outcome was AKI Network (Acute Kidney Injury Network) Stage 1 or higher; ≥0.3mg/dL or 50% rise in creatinine. Measurements Analyses were adjusted for characteristics used clinically for pre-surgical risk stratification. Results The average age and kidney function were: 71±10 years (mean ± standard deviation), serum creatinine 1.1±0.3 mg/dL, eGFR-Cr, 74±9 mL/min/1.73m2, and cystatin C, 0.9 ±0.3 mg/L. A total of 407 (36%) participants developed AKI during hospitalization. Adjusted odds ratios for intermediate and worst kidney function by cystatin C were 1.9 (95% CI, 1.4–2.7) and 4.8 (95% CI, 2.9–7.7) compared with 1.2 (95% CI, 0.9–1.7) and 1.8 (95% CI, 1.2–2.6) for creatinine and 1.0 (95% CI, 0.7–1.4) and 1.7 (95% CI, 1.1–2.3) for eGFR-Cr categories, respectively. After adjustment for clinical predictors, the C statistic to predict AKI was 0.70 without kidney markers, 0.69 with creatinine, and 0.72 with cystatin C. Cystatin C also substantially improved AKI risk classification compared to creatinine, based on a net reclassification index of 0.21 (p<0.001). Limitations The ability of these kidney biomarkers to predict risk for dialysis-requiring AKI or death could not be reliably assessed in our study due to a small number of patients with either outcome. Conclusions Pre-surgical cystatin C is better than creatinine or creatinine-based eGFR at forecasting the risk of AKI after cardiac surgery.