06 Nov LDL Linked to Acute Kidney Injury in Stent Surgery Patients

MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Ning Tan, MD, PHD
Senior Consultant Cardiologist. Department of Cardiology
Guangdong Cardiovascular Institute
Guangdong General Hospital
Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences
Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?

Dr. Tan: In this study, we evaluated whether Low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) is an independent risk factor of contrast-induced acute kidney injury (CI-AKI) in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). We prospectively enrolled 3236 consecutive patients undergoing PCI in our hospital and demonstrated that LDL-C is significantly and independently associated with CI-AKI in patients undergoing PCI.

Medical Research: What was most surprising about the results?

Dr. Tan: We might be the first to demonstrate that LDL-C is strongly associated with CI-AKI. In addition, the predictive potential of LDL-C levels was independent of persisting clinical and laboratory-based risk factors of CI-AKI, such as chronic kidney disease, diabetes, age, and Mehran risk score. Furthermore, patients with higher baseline LDL-C levels experienced higher incidence of in hospital composite end points.

Medical Research: What should clinicians and patients take away from your report?

Dr. Tan: LDL-C as an adjunct to the established clinical risk factors before PCI appeared to be useful for evaluating the risk of CI-AKI and poor in hospital outcomes. Because LDL-C is readily measured using widely available and relatively inexpensive assays, Clinicians can use this biomarker (LDL-C) to evaluate the risk of CI-AKI in patients before contrast exposure.

Medical Research: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?

Dr. Tan: We failed to demonstrate that the change of LDL-C was useful to predict CI-AKI. Future research should be performed to evaluate the value of change of LDL-C for predicting CI-AKI in patients undergoing PCI. Furthermore, the present study only demonstrated the level of LDL-C was a risk factor of CI-AKI. However, it remains unclear whether decrease of LDL-C was benefit to prevent CI-AKI. It may be an appealing research topic to explore, since very few therapeutic options of CI-AKI have consistently shown benefit.

Citation:

LDL cholesterol as a novel risk factor for contrast-induced acute kidney injury in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention Atherosclerosis, 10/20/2014
Volume 237, Issue 2, December 2014, Pages 453–459
Yuan-hui Liu,Yong Liu,Ji-yan Chen,Ying-ling Zhou,Zhu-jun Chen,Dan-qing Yu,Jian-fang Luo,Hua-long Li,Yi-ting He,Piao Ye,Peng Ran,Wei Guo, Ning Tan

Last Updated on November 6, 2014 by Marie Benz MD FAAD