Predictive performance of two types of urinary biomarkers for renal non-recovery in sepsis-associated acute kidney injury: a prospective observational study

Renal non-recovery is known to have negative prognostic implications in patients suffering from acute kidney injury (AKI). Nevertheless, the identification of biomarkers for predicting renal non-recovery in sepsis-associated AKI (SA-AKI) within clinical settings remains unresolved. This study aims to evaluate and compare the predictive ability for renal non-recovery, use of kidney replacement therapy (KRT) in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), and 30-day mortality after SA-AKI by two urinary biomarkers, namely C-C motif chemokine ligand 14 (CCL14) and [TIMP-2]•[IGFBP7]. We prospectively screened adult patients who met the criteria for AKI stage 2-3 and Sepsis-3.0 in two ICUs from January 2019 to May 2022. Patients who developed new-onset SA-AKI after ICU admission were enrolled and urinary biomarkers including [TIMP-2]•[IGFBP7] and CCL14 were detected at the time of SA-AKI diagnosis. The primary endpoint was non-recovery from SA-AKI within 7 days. The secondary endpoints were the use of KRT in the ICU and 30-day mortality after SA-AKI. The individual discriminative ability of [TIMP-2]•[IGFBP7] and CCL14 to predict renal non-recovery were evaluated by the area under receiver operating characteristics curve (AUC). 141 patients with stage 2-3 SA-AKI were finally included, among whom 54 (38.3%) experienced renal non-recovery. Urinary CCL14 exhibited a higher predictive capability for renal non-recovery compared to [TIMP-2]•[IGFBP7], with CCL14 showing an AUC of 0.901, versus an AUC of 0.730 for [TIMP-2]•[IGFBP7] (P = 0.001). Urinary CCL14 and [TIMP-2]•[IGFBP7] demonstrated a moderate predictive value for the need for KRT in ICU, with AUC values of 0.794 and 0.725, respectively; The AUC of [TIMP-2]•[IGFBP7] combined with CCL14 reached up to 0.816. Urinary CCL14 and [TIMP-2]•[IGFBP7] exhibited poor predictive power for 30-day mortality, with respective AUC values of 0.623 and 0.593. Urinary CCL14 had excellent predictive value for renal non-recovery in SA-AKI patients. For predicting the use of KRT in the ICU, the predictive capability of urinary [TIMP-2]•[IGFBP7] or CCL14 was fair. However, a combination of [TIMP-2]•[IGFBP7] and CCL14 showed good predictive ability for the use of KRT.