Proteinuria as a biomarker of acute kidney injury in severely burnt patients

Abstract EN

Objective : Proteinuria in burn patients is common, and it could be associated with acute kidney injury (AKI) with adverse outcomes.

We have evaluated the incidence, outcome, characteristics and determinants of proteinuria as a biomarker and its influence on AKI and outcomes in burn patients.

Methods : This retrospective study was carried out on a group of patients with burn injuries admitted through emergency department to burn unit of Hamad general hospital during a five-year period.

Positive urine dipstick test in addition to urine analysis readings were defined as mild (± or 1+) or heavy (≥2+) proteinuria.

AKI was diagnosed and staged according to the Risk, Injury, Failure, Loss, End Stage (RIFLE) classification system.

Patient characteristics, management and outcomes were evaluated as well for associations with proteinuria.

Results: Of the selected patients who were admitted to the burn unit during the study period (n=249), 86 (34.5%) were classified as patients who developed proteinuria.

In the patients whose total burn surface areas (TBSA) were >30% (n=50), 37 patients (74%) had proteinuria and 27 of these patients (72.9%) met AKI criteria.

No patients without proteinuria developed AKI.

Intensive care unit (ICU) mortality rates were 1%, 16% and 30% (p30% TBSA).

Those patients had a high risk of developing AKI and showed poor prognosis in survival outcomes.

This suggests that proteinuria should be used as a biomarker for identifying burn patients at risk of developing AKI.