Application of plasma neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin as an emerging biomarker in the early diagnosis of acute renal injury following renal transplantation / 中华器官移植杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To study the prognostic role of plasma neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) early after renal transplantation.Methods A total of 37 kidney recipients were enrolled from Department of Organ Transplantation,Guangdong Second Provincial General Hospital within a 12-month period of time.Plasma NGAL was measured immediately before and at 6 and 12 h post-transplantation.Changes of serum creatinine were documented daily within the first week postoperation.Acute kidney injury (AKI)/graft rejection during the first week after transplantation was the outcome variable.Results The levels of serum NGAL in the 37 patients were (311.14 ± 102.69),(317.81 ± 107.28) and (312.16 ± 134.80) μg/L respectively immediately before and at 6 and 12 h post-transplantation.There was no significant difference in serum NGAL levels before and 6 h or 12 h after operation (P =0.70,and P =0.96).There were no significant differences in gender and age between the two groups (P =0.29,and P =0.20).There was significant difference in creatinine levels between the AKI group and the non-AKI group (P =0.002) and between pre-operation and 6 or 12 h postoperation.The preoperative levels of serum NGAL in AKI group and non-AKI group were (333.58 ± 116.30) and (300.36 ± 96.15) μg/L (P =0.36),and those were (383.3 ± 147.16) and (286.32 ± 65.97) μg/L (P＜0.01) at 6 h,and (437.33 ± 164.16) and (252.08 ± 57.53) μg/L (P＜ 0.001) at 12 h after operation.The sensitivity and specificity of serumNGAL (317μg/L at 12 h after operation as the cutoff value) predicting AKI was 100％ and 92％ respectively,which was much better than that of serum creatinine at the corresponding time point (sensitivity =66.7％,and specificity =61.9％).Conclusion Plasma NGAL,particularly at 12 h after transplantation,is a very sensitive and specific biomarker for predicting AKI.