Evaluation of serum neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin in predicting acute kidney injury in critically ill patients

Objective This investigation evaluated the real-time point-of-care testing (RT-POCT) of neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) for detecting acute kidney injury (AKI) and prognosis of critically ill patients. Methods A total of 249 critically ill patients in the emergency department (ED), who were diagnosed with acute decompensated heart failure, sepsis or diabetic ketoacidosis were enrolled in this study. All enrolled patients were followed up for 28 days or to death and the mortalities were recorded. Serum creatinine (sCr) and NGAL were measured. Results 40.6% enrolled patients deteriorated to AKI during the observation period. The NGAL level was significantly higher in the AKI versus non-AKI group. The NGAL levels in the non-survivors group at 7-day and 28-day were significantly higher than in the survivors group. NGAL was detected as an independent risk factor of AKI, and 7-day and 28-day morality. The receiver operating characteristic curve of NGAL was calculated for diagnosing AKI; the area under the curve (AUC) was significantly higher than that of 1-day eGFR. Conclusions NGAL is an independent predictor of AKI, and 7-day and 28-day mortality in critically ill ED patients, and can be an early alert for AKI and useful for determining prognosis.