Biomarkers of acute kidney injury and their role in clinical patient management

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common public health problem and has a significant impact on cardiovascular disease, mortality and increased hospital costs. Also, AKI can progress to chronic kidney disease (CKD). Therefore, early diagnosis is very important for AKI. Serum creatinine (SCr) is a well-known biomarker in the diagnosis of AKI. However, changes in SCr levels are insufficient in early diagnosis so, new biomarkers are needed. Because of that, the search for biomarkers for the early detection of AKI is an ongoing process. In recent years, early diagnosis, prognostic and predictive biomarkers have been discovered to replace or support SCr in the diagnosis of AKI. New biomarkers can help early diagnosis and effective management of AKI. Since there are many biomarkers, when and under which condition these biomarkers should be used cause confusion. In this review, we aimed to construct and ease to use classification of these AKI biomarkers and summarize the current literature. We have divided the biomarkers into two main categories: renal and non-renal origin. Then, we have classified the biomarkers of renal origin as glomerular, tubular and unknown renal site. We have also described the clinical use of these biomarkers for diagnosis and prognosis. Biomed Rev 2020; 31: