A prospective randomized trial of prevention measures in patients at high risk for contrast nephropathy

Twenty-two hundred sixty-two consecutive medical and surgical admissions were evaluated prospectively to determine the contribution of iatrogenic factors to the development of renal insufficiency in hospital. Of 2,216 patients at risk, some degree of renal insufficiency developed in 4.9 percent. Decreased renal perfusion, postoperative renal insufficiency, radiographic contrast media, and aminoglycosides accounted for 79 percent of the episodes. Iatrogenic factors, broadly defined, accounted for 55 percent of all episodes. Poor prognostic indicators included oliguria, urine sediment abnormalities and, most importantly, severity of renal insufficiency; with an increase in serum creatinine of 3 mg/dl or greater, the mortality rate was 64 percent. Age, admission serum creatinine levels, and the number of episodes of renal insufficiency did not significantly affect outcome. We conclude that there is a substantial risk of the development of renal failure in hospital and that the mortality rate due to hospital-acquired renal insufficiency remains high.

Injections of radiocontrast agents are a frequent cause of acute decreases in renal function, occurring most often in patients with chronic renal insufficiency and diabetes mellitus. We prospectively studied 78 patients with chronic renal insufficiency (mean [+/- SD] serum creatinine concentration, 2.1 +/- 0.6 mg per deciliter [186 +/- 53 mumol per liter]) who underwent cardiac angiography. The patients were randomly assigned to receive 0.45 percent saline alone for 12 hours before and 12 hours after angiography, saline plus mannitol, or saline plus furosemide. The mannitol and furosemide were given just before angiography. Serum creatinine was measured before and for 48 hours after angiography, and urine was collected for 24 hours after angiography. An acute radiocontrast-induced decrease in renal function was defined as an increase in the base-line serum creatinine concentration of at least 0.5 mg per deciliter (44 mumol per liter) within 48 hours after the injection of radiocontrast agents. Twenty of the 78 patients (26 percent) had an increase in the serum creatinine concentration of at least 0.5 mg per deciliter after angiography. Among the 28 patients in the saline group, 3 (11 percent) had such an increase in serum creatinine, as compared with 7 of 25 in the mannitol group (28 percent) and 10 of 25 in the furosemide group (40 percent) (P = 0.05). The mean increase in serum creatinine 48 hours after angiography was significantly greater in the furosemide group (P = 0.01) than in the saline group. In patients with chronic renal insufficiency who are undergoing cardiac angiography, hydration with 0.45 percent saline provides better protection against acute decreases in renal function induced by radiocontrast agents than does hydration with 0.45 percent saline plus mannitol or furosemide.

After cardiac surgery, acute renal failure (ARF) requiring dialysis develops in 1% to 5% of patients and is strongly associated with perioperative morbidity and mortality. Prior studies have attempted to identify predictors of ARF but have had insufficient power to perform multivariable analyses or to develop risk stratification algorithms. We conducted a prospective cohort study of 43 642 patients who underwent coronary artery bypass or valvular heart surgery in 43 Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers between April 1987 and March 1994. Logistic regression analysis was used to identify independent predictors of ARF requiring dialysis. A risk stratification algorithm derived from recursive partitioning was constructed and was validated on an independent sample of 3795 patients operated on between April and December 1994. The overall risk of ARF requiring dialysis was 1.1%. Thirty-day mortality in patients with ARF was 63.7%, compared with 4.3% in patients without ARF. Ten clinical variables related to baseline cardiovascular disease and renal function were independently associated with the risk of ARF. A risk stratification algorithm partitioned patients into low-risk (0.4%), medium-risk (0.9% to 2.8%), and high-risk (> or = 5.0%) groups on the basis of several of these factors and their interactions. The risk of ARF after cardiac surgery can be accurately quantified on the basis of readily available preoperative data. These findings may be used by physicians and surgeons to provide patients with improved risk estimates and to target high-risk subgroups for interventions aimed at reducing the risk and ameliorating the consequences of this serious complication.