The role of novel biomarkers in acute kidney injury

Although there is a growing literature on the performance of various biomarkers in clinical studies, there is limited information on how these biomarkers would be utilized by clinicians to manage patients with acute kidney injury (AKI). The majority of investigations have focused on the ability of biomarkers to detect early either incipient or established AKI. Other studies have prospectively explored their prognostic performance in predicting either need for renal replacement therapy or intensive care unit (ICU) or hospital mortality or duration of either ICU or hospital stay. A few studies have also investigated their potential in the differential diagnosis between ‘transient AKI’, ‘prerenal AKI’, and established intrinsic AKI, mostly acute tubular necrosis.