Cystatin C is a moderate predictor of acute kidney injury in the early stage of traumatic hemorrhagic shock

Patients with traumatic hemorrhagic shock are highly susceptible to the development of acute kidney injury (AKI), but little data are available regarding the changes in cystatin C (CysC) in patients with traumatic hemorrhagic shock. The aim of the present study, therefore, was to investigate whether CysC has a higher value than serum creatinine (SCr) and urea for use in monitoring glomerular function in traumatic hemorrhagic shock. Data from a cohort of patients with traumatic hemorrhagic shock, who had been admitted to a trauma center, were collected. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to determine the diagnostic value of serum CysC, SCr and urea for the identification of renal dysfunction, and the data were expressed as the area under the curve (AUC). CysC was not significantly affected by gender, age, mechanism of injury or time between injury and arrival at the center in the patients with traumatic hemorrhagic shock. The CysC level of the patients was significantly higher than that of the normal subjects (1.10 +/- 0.36 vs. 0.91 +/- 0.34 mg/l); the SCr and urea levels of the patients were also significantly increased compared with those of the normal subjects. Nonparametric ROC plots of the sensitivity and specificity of SCr, CysC and urea for the detection of AKI revealed AUC values of 0.901 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.791-1.000], 0.728 (95% CI, 0.570-0.886) and 0.709 (95% CI, 0.552-0.865) for SCr, CysC and urea, respectively. No significant correlation between mortality and CysC, SCr or urea was found. These data indicate that the level of CysC is significantly increased in the early stage of traumatic hemorrhagic shock and that CysC can be used as a marker to predict AKI; however, the diagnostic utility of CysC remains lower than that of SCr in the early stage of the condition.