Hemodynamic variables and progression of acute kidney injury in critically ill patients with severe sepsis: data from the prospective observational FINNAKI study

Knowledge of the association of hemodynamics with progression of septic acute kidney injury (AKI) is limited. However, some recent data suggest that mean arterial pressure (MAP) exceeding current guidelines (60-65 mmHg) may be needed to prevent AKI. We hypothesized that higher MAP during the first 24 hours in the intensive care unit (ICU), would be associated with a lower risk of progression of AKI in patients with severe sepsis. We identified 423 patients with severe sepsis and electronically recorded continuous hemodynamic data in the prospective observational FINNAKI study. The primary endpoint was progression of AKI within the first 5 days of ICU admission defined as new onset or worsening of AKI by the Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) criteria. We evaluated the association of hemodynamic variables with this endpoint. We included 53724 10-minute medians of MAP in the analysis. We analysed the ability of time-adjusted MAP to predict progression of AKI by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. Of 423 patients, 153 (36.2%) had progression of AKI. Patients with progression of AKI had significantly lower time-adjusted MAP, 74.4 mmHg [68.3-80.8], than those without progression, 78.6 mmHg [72.9-85.4], P