Novel biomarkers for the prediction of acute kidney injury in patients undergoing liver transplantation.

Aim: Because of the delayed rise of serum creatinine concentrations, novel biomarkers such as NGAL, GST and KIM-1 are proposed to detect acute kidney injury (AKI). In this study we evaluated these biomarkers.

Materials & Methods: Twenty-six consecutive adult liver transplantations were evaluated. Markers were measured at four different time points during an intensive care unit admission.

Results: Plasma NGAL detected AKI with an optimal area under the curve at 8 h after admission (0.86; p = 0.004) and at 4 h after admission for urinary NGAL (0.80; p = 0.012). The other markers failed to detect AKI.

Conclusion: NGAL is a promising biomarker for detecting AKI in patients after liver transplantation.