Abstract
BACKGROUND: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is one of the serious postoperative complications in patients undergoing heart valve surgery. The aim of the present study was to identify selected biomarkers to predict AKI requiring renal replacement. METHODS: A prospective study was conducted on a group of 751 patients undergoing heart valve surgery. The data on risk factors, preoperative complete blood count, course of operations and postoperative period was assessed. The primary endpoint at the 30-day follow-up was postoperative AKI requiring renal replacement therapy. The secondary end-point was death from all causes in patients with postoperative AKI requiring renal replacement. RESULTS: The primary endpoint occurred in 46 patients. At multivariate analysis: age, red cell distribution width (RDW) and C-reactive protein remained independent predictors of the primary endpoint. Hemoglobin and RDW were associated with an increased risk of death. CONCLUSIONS: Elevated RDW is associated with a higher risk of postoperative AKI and death in patients with AKI.