LAUSR

AIM To evaluate the incidence, risk factors, and prognostic implications of contrast medium-induced acute kidney injury (CI-AKI) in patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) evaluation. MATERIALS AND METHODS Datasets from 98 out of 207 consecutive patients referred for multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) for TAVI evaluation were eligible for evaluation and were analysed retrospectively. The incidence of CI-AKI was correlated to outcome and to potential risk factors: kidney function (estimated glomerular filtration rate [eGFR]), heart failure, diabetes, amount of contrast medium, and duration of examination period. RESULTS CI-AKI occurred in 67 patients (68.4%) and mainly correlated with eGFR (p=0.01) and the amount of contrast medium as a function of eGFR (p=0.04). CI-AKI occurred before TAVI in 36 (53.7%) patients of which 13 (19.4%) did not undergo TAVI. In-hospital all-cause mortality was 21.4%, and of those 21 patients, 18 (85.7%) had CI-AKI and nine (42.9%) did not undergo TAVI. One-year all-cause mortality was 39.8%, and of those 39 patients who died within 1 year, 31 (79.5%) had CI-AKI. CONCLUSION CI-AKI mostly occurs already before TAVI as a consequence of pre-procedural imaging, which therefore represents the main contributor for CI-AKI in relation to TAVI. Regarding the observation that some patients will ultimately have no benefit because TAVI is not performed and the poor prognosis linked to CI-AKI should encourage improvement in patient selection when referring to pre-procedural imaging.