Sepsis-Induced Acute Kidney Injury

Risk factor and outcome for intra-abdominal bleeding in patients with enterocutaneous fistula

Intra-abdominal bleeding is a major and lethal complication in patients with enterocutaneous fistula (ECF) while few studies are involved in this aspect. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the risk factors and assessed the outcome for intra-abdominal bleeding in patients with ECF.A retrospective study was performed from October 2013 to October 2015. Medical records of 67 ECF patients with intra-abdominal bleeding and 134 ECF patients without intra-abdominal bleeding matched as controls were reviewed and analyzed. Logistic regression was performed to evaluate the risk factor of intra-abdominal bleeding in patients with ECF. Outcomes such as mortality, hospital durations, and cost were compared between ECF patients with or without intra-abdominal bleeding.A total of 67 ECF patients suffered intra-abdominal bleeding during hospitalization. In the logistic regression, duodenum fistula (odds ratio [OR]: 3.899, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.204-12.634, P = 0.023), hemorrhage history (OR: 15.846 95% CI: 5.779-43.448, P < 0.001), and acute kidney injury (OR: 6.350 95% CI: 2.033-19.836, P = 0.001) were independent risk factors for intra-abdominal bleeding in patients with ECF. In addition, the bleeding patients showed a significantly higher mortality rate, prolonged total parenteral nutrition days, hospital and intensive care unit durations, more complications, and increased cost.We revealed the 3 risk factors for intra-abdominal bleeding among ECF patients. Besides, intra-abdominal hemorrhage was associated with a poor prognosis in patients with ECF.

Risk Stratification for Acute Kidney Injury: Are Biomarkers Enough?

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common and serious complication that is associated with several adverse outcomes in hospitalized patients. AKI significantly increases the risk of mortality, need for renal replacement therapy, and intensive care admission, and it also has serious economic ramifications. Effective risk stratification to identify patients at risk for severe AKI is essential for targeting our health care and research resources to tackle this important public health issue. The overwhelming majority of research in earlier diagnosis and risk stratification of AKI over the past 10 years has focused on novel biomarker development. The purpose of this review is to provide an update on other novel risk stratification tools than can be used in the prognostication of AKI. We discuss the utility of the furosemide stress test in predicting the severity of AKI and the renal angina index in predicting the occurrence of AKI. We also discuss NephroCheck, a prognostic test that measures tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-2 and insulin-like growth factor binding protein 7 for the early detection of severe AKI.

Autophagy is activated to protect against endotoxic acute kidney injury

Endotoxemia in sepsis, characterized by systemic inflammation, is a major cause of acute kidney injury (AKI) in hospitalized patients, especially in intensive care unit; however the underlying pathogenesis is poorly understood. Autophagy is a conserved, cellular catabolic pathway that plays crucial roles in cellular homeostasis including the maintenance of cellular function and viability. The regulation and role of autophagy in septic or endotoxic AKI remains unclear. Here we show that autophagy was induced in kidney tubular cells in mice by the endotoxin lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Pharmacological inhibition of autophagy with chloroquine enhanced LPS-induced AKI. Moreover, specific ablation of autophagy gene 7 (Atg7) from kidney proximal tubules worsened LPS-induced AKI. Together, the results demonstrate convincing evidence of autophagy activation in endotoxic kidney injury and support a renoprotective role of autophagy in kidney tubules.

High-resolution mass spectrometry for exploring metabolic signatures of sepsis-induced acute kidney injury

Sepsis is a commonly encountered scenario in an intensive care unit (ICU), and the kidney is one of the organs frequently affected.