Acute Kidney Injury following Cardiac Surgery: A Clinical Model

Background: Scientists use preclinical models of acute kidney injury (AKI) to decipher mechanisms and develop therapy, but translation of therapies to patients remains poor. Models that better resemble patients, including those within clinical care, should be considered.Summary: Mice provide many advantages to the study of human disease including an ability to dictate precise experimental conditions. To best isolate and measure phenomena, scientists reduce experimental variability – identical animals, environmental conditions, experimental exposures, and outcome assessments. This technique reduces effect size variability and increases power but dissociates these model organisms from the clinical patients they intend to represent, potentially accounting for the poor translat ion of findings into patient care. Clinical research, conversely, is often plagued by heterogeneous patients, heterogenous environmental factors, and heterogenous renal insults. A compromise between these 2 extremes – a model of AKI that is more similar to human disease but still provides opportu nities for rigorous investigation – should be utilized. Cardiac surgery provides a clinical model for the study of AKI due to mechanism overlap it shares with other clinical conditions (improved generalizability) and characteristics that provide distinct opportunities for research. The high rate o f AKI following cardiac surgery and the relative homogeneity (decreased variability) of cardiac surgery subject...

Source: Nephron - July 3, 2019 Category: Urology & Nephrology Source Type: research