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  • Year in Review
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ACUTE KIDNEY INJURY IN 2019

Exciting developments in the field of acute kidney injury

Nature Reviews Nephrology volume 16, pages 69–70 (2020)Cite this article

Subjects

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is an important clinical problem that is associated with adverse short- and long-term outcomes. Studies published in 2019 provide new insights into the staging, risk stratification and subphenotyping of AKI as well as the adverse effects of AKI on the heart.

Key advances

  • The Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) definitions of stage 1 acute kidney injury (AKI) based on absolute versus relative changes in serum creatinine levels were associated with different outcomes in a retrospective cohort study1, highlighting the potential need for revisions to current AKI definitions.

  • Urinary Dickkopf-related protein 3 is a potential pre-operative biomarker for risk of AKI following elective cardiac surgery2.

  • An unbiased discovery method can identify distinct pathophysiological subphenotypes of septic AKI; these subphenotypes had differential treatment responses in a post hoc analysis of clinical trial data5.

  • A deep learning approach using electronic health record data can identify patients at high risk of AKI8.

  • In a mouse model, AKI results in direct cardiac injury and dysfunction9.

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Fig. 1: Advances in acute kidney injury in 2019.

References

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  10. Fox, B. M. et al. Metabolomics assessment reveals oxidative stress and altered energy production in the heart after ischemic acute kidney injury in mice. Kidney Int. 95, 590–610 (2019).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nephrology and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine and Critical Care Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan, ROC

    Chun-Te Huang

  2. Nephrology and Critical Care Medicine, Departments of Medicine and Anesthesia, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Kathleen D. Liu

Authors
  1. Chun-Te Huang
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  2. Kathleen D. Liu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kathleen D. Liu.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Cite this article

Huang, CT., Liu, K.D. Exciting developments in the field of acute kidney injury. Nat Rev Nephrol 16, 69–70 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41581-019-0241-5

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