Impact of elevated serum glycated albumin levels on contrast-induced acute kidney injury in diabetic patients with moderate to severe renal insufficiency undergoing coronary angiography.

Background: Glycated albumin (GA) has been shown to be a better indicator than glycosylated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) in terms of severity of renal impairment in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). This study aimed to determine whether elevated serum GA levels are associated with an increased risk for contrast-induced acute kidney injury (CI-AKI) and worse clinical outcome in patients with T2DM and at least moderate renal insufficiency (RI) undergoing coronary angiography.

Methods: Serum levels of fasting blood glucose (FBG), HbA1c and GA were measured in 1030 patients with T2DM and moderate to severe RI (eGFR 15-59 mL/min/1.73 m(2)). CI-AKI was defined as ≥ 25% increase in serum creatinine within 72 h after the procedure. Receiver-operating characteristic curve was constructed to assess the predictive value of GA, HbA1c and FBG for CI-AKI. Multivariable logistic regression model was developed to identify risk factors for CI-AKI, and Kaplan-Meier curve analysis was used to compare the rates of dialysis and major adverse cardiac events (MACE) during one-year follow-up.

Results: The overall rate of CI-AKI was 11.1%. GA was significantly higher in patients with CI-AKI than in those without, and correlated positively with changes of renal function after the procedure. After adjusting for age, sex, left ventricular ejection fraction, multi-vessel disease, type and volume of contrast media, FBG, and HbA1c, GA remained an independent risk factor for CI-AKI. GA ≥ 21% was associated with increased rates of dialysis and MACE during one-year follow-up in patients with or without CI-AKI.

Conclusions: Increased GA level serves as a valuable risk factor for CI-AKI and indicates poor one-year clinical outcome in patients with T2DM and moderate to severe RI.