Urinary IL-18: A marker of contrast-induced nephropathy following percutaneous coronary intervention?

Objectives: Contrast-induced nephropathy (CIN) is a complication that is underestimated in clinical practice after cardiac catheterization. Recently, the value of interleukin (IL)-18 as a novel biomarker for the detection of acute renal failure has been highlighted. In the present study, we sought to investigate whether urine IL-18 may be an early diagnostic marker of CIN. Design and methods: We performed a nested case-control study using a hospital based cohort of all patients (n=157) admitted for elective PCI for stable angina to the Uludag University School of Medicine between February 2007 and June 2007. We identified 15 patients (9.5%) with CIN. Controls were matched with cases at an attempted 2.5:1 ratio by age and gender. Urinary IL-18 values were measured before as well as 24 and 72 It after the PCI. Results: No statistically significant differences in urine IL-18 were detected between cases (n=15) and controls (n=36) or between the patient samples obtained before PCI and after the invasive procedure in both study groups. Conclusions: These findings argue against the hypothesis that urine IL-18 may be clinically useful as a biomarker of CIN after radiological procedures requiring intravascular administration of iodinated contrast media. Further studies with larger sample sizes are needed to validate our findings. (c) 2008 The Canadian Society of Clinical Chemists. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.