Prospective Study of a Point-of-Care Diagnostic Test for Acute Kidney Injury in a South Asian Hospital

Introduction: Serum creatinine (SCr) is used to diagnose acute kidney injury (AKI) but has limited utility to distinguish volume depletion from tubular injury. Urine neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (uNGAL) distinguishes these causes of elevated SCr. Methods: We tested a novel point-of-car...

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Main Authors: Tejashree S. Gopal, Katherine Xu, Yechiel Muller, Jai Radhakrishnan, Vivekanandan Pillai, Jonathan Barasch, Sreejith Parameswaran, Catherine S. Forster
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2025-06-01
Series:Kidney International Reports
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Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S246802492500169X
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author Tejashree S. Gopal
Katherine Xu
Yechiel Muller
Jai Radhakrishnan
Vivekanandan Pillai
Jonathan Barasch
Sreejith Parameswaran
Catherine S. Forster
author_facet Tejashree S. Gopal
Katherine Xu
Yechiel Muller
Jai Radhakrishnan
Vivekanandan Pillai
Jonathan Barasch
Sreejith Parameswaran
Catherine S. Forster
author_sort Tejashree S. Gopal
collection DOAJ
description Introduction: Serum creatinine (SCr) is used to diagnose acute kidney injury (AKI) but has limited utility to distinguish volume depletion from tubular injury. Urine neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (uNGAL) distinguishes these causes of elevated SCr. Methods: We tested a novel point-of-care (POC) dipstick to measure uNGAL at presentation at the emergency medical services department (EMSD) in a tertiary care hospital in Puducherry, India. The primary outcome was a sustained elevation of SCr; the secondary outcome was in-hospital mortality. The study enrolled 396 patients with a mean age of 49.7 years (SD: 16); 36% were female. Sufficient measurements for SCr kinetics were obtained from 229 patients. Owing to inconsistent serial measurements of SCr for some patients, subanalyses were conducted for “strict” and “inclusive” SCr defined subsets, which yielded similar results. Results: Elevated uNGAL (median [interquartile range]: 500 ± 350 ng/ml) in the EMSD indicated sustained increases of SCr (> 48 hours); whereas much lower levels of uNGAL indicated either transient changes (< 48 hours; 150 ± 250 ng/ml) or no elevation of SCr (50 ± 97.5 ng/ml) (P < 0.01). Analysis of the entire cohort (N = 229) or the “strict” subset with complete SCr measurements (n = 129) (P < 0.01) yielded similar data. uNGAL was highly specific and moderately sensitive (specificity: 0.90 [0.83–0.95]; sensitivity: 0.82 [0.67–0.96]) to indicate sustained elevation of SCr (area under the curve–receiver operating characteristic curve: 0.86; confidence interval: [0.76–0.96] and odds ratio [OR]: 16.19; confidence interval: [5.63–59.02] for NGAL levels > 125 ng/ml). Elevated uNGAL was also associated with mortality (OR: 3.91 [confidence interval: 2.17–7.33]). uNGAL, infection, and proteinuria demonstrated limited correlations (R2 = 0.26; P < 10−36). Conclusion: uNGAL dipstick can diagnose kidney damage associated with sustained elevation of SCr and death at patient encounter in the EMSD.
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spelling doaj-art-a12787236fd04bcbbaf85e20dd56f40a2025-08-20T02:33:42ZengElsevierKidney International Reports2468-02492025-06-011061971197910.1016/j.ekir.2025.03.026Prospective Study of a Point-of-Care Diagnostic Test for Acute Kidney Injury in a South Asian HospitalTejashree S. Gopal0Katherine Xu1Yechiel Muller2Jai Radhakrishnan3Vivekanandan Pillai4Jonathan Barasch5Sreejith Parameswaran6Catherine S. Forster7Department of Medicine, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, New York, USADepartment of Medicine, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, New York, USADepartment of Medicine, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, New York, USADepartment of Medicine, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, New York, USANephrology, Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research, Puducherry, IndiaDepartment of Medicine, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA; Correspondence: Jonathan Barasch, Department of Medicine (Nephrology), Columbia University, 1150 St Nicholas Avenue New York, New York 10032, USA.Nephrology, Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research, Puducherry, India; Sreejith Parameswaran, Nephrology, XQ2X+4VC, Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research, Campus Rd, Puducherry, 605006, India.Department of Pediatrics, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Catherine Forster, UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, 4401 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15224-1334, USA.Introduction: Serum creatinine (SCr) is used to diagnose acute kidney injury (AKI) but has limited utility to distinguish volume depletion from tubular injury. Urine neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (uNGAL) distinguishes these causes of elevated SCr. Methods: We tested a novel point-of-care (POC) dipstick to measure uNGAL at presentation at the emergency medical services department (EMSD) in a tertiary care hospital in Puducherry, India. The primary outcome was a sustained elevation of SCr; the secondary outcome was in-hospital mortality. The study enrolled 396 patients with a mean age of 49.7 years (SD: 16); 36% were female. Sufficient measurements for SCr kinetics were obtained from 229 patients. Owing to inconsistent serial measurements of SCr for some patients, subanalyses were conducted for “strict” and “inclusive” SCr defined subsets, which yielded similar results. Results: Elevated uNGAL (median [interquartile range]: 500 ± 350 ng/ml) in the EMSD indicated sustained increases of SCr (> 48 hours); whereas much lower levels of uNGAL indicated either transient changes (< 48 hours; 150 ± 250 ng/ml) or no elevation of SCr (50 ± 97.5 ng/ml) (P < 0.01). Analysis of the entire cohort (N = 229) or the “strict” subset with complete SCr measurements (n = 129) (P < 0.01) yielded similar data. uNGAL was highly specific and moderately sensitive (specificity: 0.90 [0.83–0.95]; sensitivity: 0.82 [0.67–0.96]) to indicate sustained elevation of SCr (area under the curve–receiver operating characteristic curve: 0.86; confidence interval: [0.76–0.96] and odds ratio [OR]: 16.19; confidence interval: [5.63–59.02] for NGAL levels > 125 ng/ml). Elevated uNGAL was also associated with mortality (OR: 3.91 [confidence interval: 2.17–7.33]). uNGAL, infection, and proteinuria demonstrated limited correlations (R2 = 0.26; P < 10−36). Conclusion: uNGAL dipstick can diagnose kidney damage associated with sustained elevation of SCr and death at patient encounter in the EMSD.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S246802492500169XAKIdipstickNGAL
spellingShingle Tejashree S. Gopal
Katherine Xu
Yechiel Muller
Jai Radhakrishnan
Vivekanandan Pillai
Jonathan Barasch
Sreejith Parameswaran
Catherine S. Forster
Prospective Study of a Point-of-Care Diagnostic Test for Acute Kidney Injury in a South Asian Hospital
Kidney International Reports
AKI
dipstick
NGAL
title Prospective Study of a Point-of-Care Diagnostic Test for Acute Kidney Injury in a South Asian Hospital
title_full Prospective Study of a Point-of-Care Diagnostic Test for Acute Kidney Injury in a South Asian Hospital
title_fullStr Prospective Study of a Point-of-Care Diagnostic Test for Acute Kidney Injury in a South Asian Hospital
title_full_unstemmed Prospective Study of a Point-of-Care Diagnostic Test for Acute Kidney Injury in a South Asian Hospital
title_short Prospective Study of a Point-of-Care Diagnostic Test for Acute Kidney Injury in a South Asian Hospital
title_sort prospective study of a point of care diagnostic test for acute kidney injury in a south asian hospital
topic AKI
dipstick
NGAL
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S246802492500169X
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