Acute Kidney Injury and Risk of Heart Failure and Atherosclerotic Events

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: AKI in the hospital is common and is associated with excess mortality. We examined whether AKI is also independently associated with a higher risk of different cardiovascular events in the first year after discharge. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, 95% confidence interval 95% CI, 1.13 to 1.25) even after adjustment for demographics, comorbidities, preadmission eGFR and proteinuria, heart failure and sepsis complicating the hospitalization, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, length of stay, and predicted in-hospital mortality. This was driven by an excess risk of subsequent heart failure (aHR, 1.44; 95% CI, 1.33 to 1.56), whereas there was no significant association with follow-up atherosclerotic events (aHR, 1.05; 95% CI, 0.98 to 1.12). CONCLUSIONS: AKI is independently associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular events, especially heart failure, after hospital discharge.