Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common complication in critically ill patients, most often occurring in patients who are hospitalized, underwent surgery, or have chronic illness such as diabetes. In the United States, AKI affects nearly 4 million hospitalized patients each year. Timely detection of AKI is important for treatment initiation and requires screening, as AKI is generally asymptomatic. Current Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) guidelines recommend screening all patients at risk of developing AKI. The most recent KDIGO guidelines, published in 2012, rely on serum creatinine (SCr) levels and urine output to define and stage AKI; however, these markers are limited by low sensitivity/specificity, and delayed time to presentation. Subsequent advances have the potential to improve diagnostic accuracy and reduce the time to diagnosis of AKI. In recent years, several biomarkers of AKI have been identified and validated, yielding new diagnostic methods that have the potential to improve clinical management.
Faculty
Dana Fuhrman, DO, MS
MODERATOR
Assistant Professor, Pediatric Critical Care Medicine Assistant Professor, Pediatric Nephrology Program Director, Pediatric Critical Care Medicine Fellowship Program Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Ravindra L. Mehta MD, FACP, FRCP
PANELIST
Professor Emeritus of Medicine Director UCSD CREST and Masters of Advanced Studies In Clinical Research Program Department of Medicine University of California San Diego La Jolla, California
Anitha Vijayan MD
PANELIST
Professor of Medicine Division of Nephrology Washington University in St. Louis St Louis, Missouri
Agenda
Welcome and Introductions
Acute Kidney Injury in the Critical Care Unit: The Case for Early Risk Assessment
Case-Based Discussion: Exploring the Role of Biomarkers in Timely Identification of Patients at Risk of AKI
