AKINow Basic Science

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a serious and common complication of cardiac surgery. Intravenous amino acids increase kidney perfusion and recruit renal functional reserve. However, the efficacy of amino acids in reducing the occurrence of AKI after cardiac surgery is uncertain. In a multinational, double-blind trial, the authors randomly assigned adult patients who were scheduled to undergo cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass to receive an intravenous infusion of either a balanced mixture of amino acids or placebo for up to 3 days.

View this Journal Club Presentation to learn the outcome of this research.

Dr. Sanjeev Kumar presents his recent article from Science, on how SOX9 switch activity determines healing with or without fibrosis after AKI.

Featured article: Teprasiran, a Small Interfering RNA, for the Prevention of Acute Kidney Injury in High-Risk Patients Undergoing Cardiac Surgery: A Randomized Clinical Study

PubMed. 2021 Oct 5;144(14):1133-1144. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34474590/. Epub 2021 Sep 3.

The authors and moderators discuss this study wherein the incidence, severity, and duration of early AKI in high-risk patients undergoing cardiac surgery were significantly reduced after teprasiran administration.

In this randomized control trial, the authors investigated whether an automated clinical decision support system affects discontinuation rates of potentially nephrotoxic medications and improves outcomes in patients with AKI.

The paper’s lead author, Dr. F. Perry Wilson, discusses the study and answers questions.

A randomized clinical trial assessing the effect of automated medication-targeted alerts on acute kidney injury outcome

Nat Commun 14, 2826 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38532-3 Published May 17, 2023

Authors Kensei Taguchi and Craig Brooks discuss the role of CG1 and CDK5 in maladaptive repair. Amandeep Bajwa moderates.