Author Interviews, Critical Care - Intensive Care - ICUs, Heart Disease, JAMA, Kidney Disease, Surgical Research / 29.12.2015
Acute Kidney Injury Raises Cardiovascular Mortality in Vascular Surgery Patients
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Azra Bihorac, MD, MS and
Department of Anesthesiology
Charles Hobson, MD, MHA
Department of Surgery, Malcolm Randall Veterans Affairs Medical Center,
Department of Health Services Research, Management, and Policy
University of Florida Gainesville Florida
Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Background is that as ICU clinicians we see acute kidney injury (AKI) and chronic kidney disease (CKD) frequently and have to deal with the consequences, and as AKI researchers we have shown that even mild and moderate AKI – even if there is complete resolution of the AKI by the time of hospital discharge – result in significantly increased morbidity and mortality for the surgical patient. Furthermore we are aware of the existing relationship between CKD and cardiovascular mortality, and we wanted to explore any relationship between AKI and cardiovascular mortality in the vascular surgery patients that we care for on a daily basis. The most important finding was the strong association between AKI and cardiovascular mortality in these patients – equal to the well-known association between CKD and cardiovascular mortality.
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