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Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a serious complication, commonly occurring in the critically ill population, with devastating short- and long-term consequences. Despite standardization of the definition and staging of AKI, early recognition remains challenging given that serum creatinine level is a marker, albeit imperfect, of kidney function and not kidney injury. Furthermore, the delay in increase in serum creatinine level after loss of glomerular filtration also prevents timely detection of decreased kidney function in patients with AKI. During the past decade, numerous clinical investigations have evaluated the utility of several biomarkers in the early diagnosis and risk stratification of AKI. In 2014, the US Food and Drug Administration approved the marketing of a test based on the combination of urine concentrations of tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase 2 and insulin-like growth factor binding protein 7 ([TIMP-2] × [IGFBP7]) to determine whether certain critically ill patients are at risk for developing moderate to severe AKI. The optimal role of this biomarker in the diagnosis, management, and prognosis of AKI in different clinical settings requires further clarification. In this perspective, we summarize the biological actions of these 2 cell-cycle arrest biomarkers and present important considerations regarding the clinical application, interpretation, and limitations of this novel test for the early detection of AKI.

Heparin and citrate are used as catheter lock solutions to reduce risk of catheter dysfunction and infection in hemodialysis. There is a paucity of data comparing these two locks in the short-term, inpatient setting. We compared the efficacy of 2.2% acid citrate dextrose (ACD) versus 5000 U/ml heparin as catheter lock in the inpatient setting. The study was conducted at two sites within our system, with ACD locks used at site 1 and heparin locks at site 2. We assessed catheters for catheter dysfunction and infection. Both nontunneled dialysis catheters (NTDC) and tunneled dialysis catheters (TDC) were evaluated. We studied 250 catheters and 139 met inclusion criteria: 90 catheters in the ACD group and 49 in the heparin group. ACD had superior outcomes for NTDC; event rate was 0.052 for NTDC/ACD and 0.125 for NTDC/heparin (p = 0.032). There was no difference for TDC. Univariate (odds ratio [OR]: 1.88, confidence interval [CI]: 0.931, 3.82) and multivariate (OR: 1.35, CI: 0.64, 2.87) analyses demonstrated a trend toward increased odds of event with heparin. Catheter lock with 2.2% ACD has lower risk of catheter dysfunction as compared with that of 5000 U/ml heparin in the short-term inpatient setting in NTDC and similar risk in TDC.