Beyond Early Diagnosis: Prognostic Biomarkers for Monitoring Acute Kidney Injury

The prognosis of acute kidney injury (AKI) is often adverse but varies markedly, underlying the need in clinical decision-making for biomarkers that, individually, stratify risk. At present, only a few biomarkers of AKI have the limited dual function of diagnostic and prognostic stratification, one of which is urine neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin. Currently, the most feasible approach to clinically managing patients with AKI is to combine the predictive functions of several markers in order to diagnose AKI and predict short-term prognosis. Biomarkers for assessing the long-term prognosis of AKI remain to be identified.