ABSTRACT
Objective To evaluate the role of nutritional parameters in prognosis,especially in the early and late mortality of hospital-acquired acute kidney injury (AKI) patients.Methods This study was a prospective cohort study conducted in a hospital comprising 1500 beds in Shanghai, China. One hundred ninety-four patients with hospital-acquired AKI, as determined using the RIFLE staging criteria,were enrolled as subjects after obtaining informed consent.Patients with AKI caused by postrenal obstruction,glomerulonephritis,interstitial nephritis or vasculitis were excluded.Nutritional evaluation,including subjective global assessment (SGA),anthropometric and laboratory examination,was conducted. Other laboratory measurements and clinical data were recorded.The primary outcome was early mortality (≤ 7 days) and late mortality (8-28 days) after enrolling into the study. Results AKI patients at enrollment were characterized by a high prevalence of malnutrition as determined by SGA, anthropometric and laboratory examination.Univariate analysis showed that the SGA,the serum levels of prealbumin,cholesterol and total lymphatic cells, and the Maastricht index were significantly different among early mortality,late mortality and survival groups.The serum prealbumin and cholesterol levels in the early death group were significantly lower than those in the survival and late death groups (P＜0.05).Multivariate analysis revealed that SGA,albumin,prealbumin and cholesterol remained independently and significantly associated with early mortality after adjusting for age,sex,dialysis,ventilation,hemoglobin,platelets,bilirubin,and Glasgow coma score.The areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve to predict early mortality for albumin,prealbumin and cholesterol were 0.591,0.736 and 0.603,respectively,with that of prealbumin significantly higher than others (P＜0.05). Conclusion Low levels of serum prealbumin,albumin and cholesterol at enrollment are independtly associated with increased early mortality in hospital-acquired AKI patients.