Risk Factors for Acute Kidney Injury Following Cardiac Surgery and Performance of Leicester Score in a Spanish Cohort

The incidence of acute kidney injury following cardiac surgery (CSA-AKI) is up to 30%, and it places patients at an increased risk of death. The Leicester score (LS) is a new score that predicts CSA-AKI of any stage with better discrimination compared to previous scores. The aim of this study was to identify risk factors for CSA-AKI and to assess the performance of LS. A unicentric retrospective study of patients that required cardiac surgery with cardio-pulmonary bypass (CPB) in 2015 was performed. The inclusion criteria were patients over 18 years old who were operated on for cardiac surgery (valve substitution (VS), Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG), or a combination of both procedures and requiring CPB). CSA-AKI was defined with the Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) criteria. In the multivariate analysis, hypertension (odds ratio 1.883), estimated glomerular filtration rate (EGFR) <60 mL/min (2.365), and peripheral vascular disease (4.66) were associated with the outcome. Both discrimination and calibration were better when the LS was used compared to the Cleveland Clinic Score and Euroscore II, with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.721. In conclusion, preoperative hypertension in patients with CKD with or without peripheral vasculopathy can identify patients who are at risk of CSA-AKI. The LS was proven to be a valid score that could be used to identify patients who are at risk and who could benefit from intervention studies.