Study Shows Improved Outcomes With NephroCheck Test For Risk Assessment Of Acute Kidney Injury And KDIGO Intervention

Moderate to Severe AKI Occurrence Reduced 33.9 Percent In First Outcomes study

Up to One-Third of Cardiac Surgery Patients Develop Some Form of AKI

SAN DIEGO, Jan. 23, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Using Astute Medical's NephroCheck Test to identify patients at high risk for acute kidney injury (AKI) after open-heart surgery and providing them treatment recommended by globally-recognized care guidelines significantly improved outcomes by reducing the occurrence of moderate to severe AKI more than 33 percent, according to a study published this weekend in the journal Intensive Care Medicine.

Experience the interactive Multimedia News Release here: http://www.multivu.com/players/English/7899551-nephrocheck-test-acute-kidney-injury-outcomes

The study is the first to demonstrate improved outcomes for AKI from the combination of risk assessment and intervention as outlined by the Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) guidelines.¹

"This study shatters the myth that there is nothing we can do to prevent kidney injury and the severity by which it manifests," said John Kellum, M.D., director for the Center for Critical Care Nephrology at the University of Pittsburgh and Co-Chair for the KDIGO AKI clinical practice guidelines. "The study clearly demonstrates for the very first time that ensuring that patients at high risk for AKI get a specific bundle of care can reduce the incidence and severity of AKI," said Dr. Kellum, who is a consultant for Astute Medical and the inventor of patent rights for unrelated technology owned by the University of Pittsburgh and licensed to Astute Medical.

Clinicians' long struggle to stop kidney damage before it occurs has been rooted in the lack of tools to identify patients at risk for developing this complicated and stealthy condition.² AKI is an unpredictable and potentially deadly condition that dramatically increases the cost of care.³ It can progress silently, without symptoms, for hours to days, sometimes causing life-threatening, irreversible kidney damage before it is detected using traditional testing methods.⁴ Since there is no therapy or drug to reverse AKI, identifying the critically ill patients at risk of developing the condition early, before any organ damage occurs, can be crucial to saving or preserving kidney function.⁴