Comparing biomarkers for acute kidney injury
Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common complication in hospitalized patients. Patients with AKI are more likely to die or have a worse quality of life after leaving the hospital. Early treatment is our best option for preventing these bad outcomes. To start treatment we first need to detect AKI.
Several biomarkers go up when a patient has AKI. Doctors watch the biomarker levels and start treatment when they rise. There is still uncertainty about which biomarker is best.
I am co-author on a recently published article exploring this issue. We compared creatinine and cystatin C in the serum. Cystatin C predicted kidney function better than creatinine. There was no difference in predicting death.