Urinary neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin and L-type fatty acid binding protein as diagnostic markers of early acute kidney injury after liver transplantation.

We examined the value of two potential novel urinary biomarkers, neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) and L-type fatty acid binding protein (L-FABP), in diagnosing acute kidney injury (AKI) in liver transplant recipients. NGAL and L-FABP in urinary sample from Twenty-five patients before surgery and at 2, 4, 6, 12, 24, 48, 72 and 120 h after the anhepatic phase were tested. Standard statistics were used along with receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) analysis to evaluate the diagnostic value of selected markers. Urinary NGAL was only slightly elevated at 2 h in the non-AKI group while rose and stayed high from 2-6 h in the AKI group. However, urinary L-FABP rose transiently in both groups 2-120 h following surgery. The level of urinary NGAL presented differences at 2-6 h (p < 0.05) and urinary L-FABP at 4 h (p < 0.05) between AKI and non-AKI groups. ROC analysis showed that area under the curves (AUCs) of NGAL were 0.766, 0.773, and 0.773 at 2, 4 and 6 h respectively while 0.760 of L-FABP at 4 h. Urinary NGAL rather than L-FABP appeared to be a sensitive and specific marker of AKI in liver transplant recipients.