Latent AKI is… still AKI: the quantification of the burden of renal dysfunction. Issue 1 (December 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ricci, Zaccaria; Romagnoli, Stefano; Di Chiara, Luca
• Is Part Of: Critical care. Volume 20:Issue 1(2016)
• Page Start: 1
• Page End: 2
• Publication Date: 2016-12
• Subjects: Acute kidney injury -- Congenital heart disease -- Cardiopulmonary bypass -- Neutrophil gelatinase associated lipocalin; Critical care medicine -- Periodicals; 616.02805
• DOI: 10.1186/s13054-016-1428-9
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1364-8535

Abstract

Abstract The association between pediatric cardiac surgery, acute kidney injury (AKI), and clinical outcomes has been studied several times in the recent literature. In this issue ofCritical Care an interesting and original study analyzed thepath from causal AKI entities to clinical AKI consequences through the application of structural equation modeling. The authors described the complex connections linking duration of cardiopulmonary bypass, cross clamp-time, and descriptors of low cardiac output syndrome to AKI modeled as a complex variable composed of post-operative serum creatinine increase of 50 % over baseline, urine output <0.5 ml/kg/h, and urine creatinine-normalized neutrophil gelatinase lipocalin within 12 h of surgery. Similarly, the causal relationships between AKI and hard outcomes in the analyzed population were verified and quantified. The authors, for the first time, produce a repeatable coefficient (0.741) that may become a useful quality benchmark and could be applied to test future interventions aiming to reduce the burden of AKI on children's clinical course.