Skip to main content
Log in

Drug-associated acute kidney injury: who’s at risk?

  • Educational Review
  • Published:
Pediatric Nephrology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The contribution of nephrotoxic medications to the development of acute kidney injury (AKI) is becoming better understood concomitant with the increased incidence of AKI in children. Treatment of AKI is not yet available, so prevention continues to be the most effective approach. There is an opportunity to mitigate severity and prevent the occurrence of AKI if children at increased risk are identified early and nephrotoxins are used judiciously. Early detection of AKI is limited by the dependence of nephrologists on serum creatinine as an indicator. Promising new biomarkers may offer early detection of AKI prior to the rise in serum creatinine. Early detection of evolving AKI is improving and offers opportunities for better management of nephrotoxins. However, the identification of patients at increased risk will remain an important first step, with a focus on the use of biomarker testing and interpretation of the results.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Sanchez-Pinto LN, Goldstein SL, Schneider JB, Khemani RG (2015) Association between progression and improvement of acute kidney injury and mortality in critically ill children. Pediatr Crit Care Med 16:703–710

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Moffett BS, Goldstein SL (2011) Acute kidney injury and increasing nephrotoxic-medication exposure in noncritically-ill children. Clin J Am Soc Nephrol 6:856–863

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  3. Hui-Stickle S, Brewer ED, Goldstein SL (2005) Pediatric ARF epidemiology at a tertiary care center from 1999 to 2001. Am J Kidney Dis 45:96–101

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Perazella MA (2009) Renal vulnerability to drug toxicity. Clin J Am Soc Nephrol 4:1275–1283

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Lewis SJ, Mueller BA (2014) Antibiotic dosing in patients with acute kidney injury: "enough but not too much". J Intensive Care Med 31:164–176

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Kane-Gill SL, Goldstein SL (2015) Drug-induced acute kidney injury: a focus on risk assessment for prevention. Crit Care Clin 31:675–684

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Siew ED, Basu RK, Wunsch H, Shaw AD, Goldstein SL, Ronco C, Kellum JA, Bagshaw SM (2016) Optimizing administrative datasets to examine acute kidney injury in the era of big data: workgroup statement from the 15(th) ADQI Consensus Conference. Can J Kidney Health Dis 3:12

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  8. Schaffzin JK, Dodd CN, Nguyen H, Schondelmeyer A, Campanella S, Goldstein SL (2014) Administrative data misclassifies and fails to identify nephrotoxin-associated acute kidney injury in hospitalized children. Hosp Pediatr 4:159–166

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. (2012) Section 2: AKI Definition. Kidney Int Suppl (2011) 2:19–36. doi: 10.1038/kisup.2011.32

  10. Akcan-Arikan A, Zappitelli M, Loftis LL, Washburn KK, Jefferson LS, Goldstein SL (2007) Modified RIFLE criteria in critically ill children with acute kidney injury. Kidney Int 71:1028–1035

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Levi TM, de Souza SP, de Magalhães JG, de Carvalho MS, Cunha AL, Dantas JG, Cruz MG, Guimaraes YL, Cruz CM (2014) Comparison of the RIFLE, AKIN and KDIGO criteria to predict mortality in critically ill patients. Rev Bras Ter Intensiva 25:290–296

    Google Scholar 

  12. Kellum JA (2015) Diagnostic criteria for acute kidney injury: present and future. Crit Care Clin 31:621–632

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  13. Selewski DT, Cornell TT, Heung M, Troost JP, Ehrmann BJ, Lombel RM, Blatt NB, Luckritz K, Hieber S, Gajarski R, Kershaw DB, Shanley TP, Gipson DS (2014) Validation of the KDIGO acute kidney injury criteria in a pediatric critical care population. Intensive Care Med 40:1481–1488

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Sutherland SM, Byrnes JJ, Kothari M, Longhurst CA, Dutta S, Garcia P, Goldstein SL (2015) AKI in hospitalized children: comparing the pRIFLE, AKIN, and KDIGO definitions. Clin J Am Soc Nephrol 10:554–561

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  15. Kellum JA, Sileanu FE, Murugan R, Lucko N, Shaw AD, Clermont G (2015) Classifying AKI by urine output versus serum creatinine level. J Am Soc Nephrol 26:2231–2238

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  16. Chiou WL, Hsu FH (1975) Pharmacokinetics of creatinine in man and its implications in the monitoring of renal function and in dosage regimen modifications in patients with renal insufficiency. J Clin Pharmacol 15:427–434

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Goldstein SL, Devarajan P (2010) Acute kidney injury in childhood: should we be worried about progression to CKD? Pediatr Nephrol 26:509–522

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Basu RK, Andrews A, Krawczeski C, Manning P, Wheeler DS, Goldstein SL (2013) Acute kidney injury based on corrected serum creatinine is associated with increased morbidity in children following the arterial switch operation. Pediatr Crit Care Med 14:e218–e224

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Chen L-X, Koyner JL (2015) Biomarkers in acute kidney injury. Crit Care Clin 31:633–648

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Perazella MA (2010) Drug use and nephrotoxicity in the intensive care unit. Kidney Int 81:1172–1178

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Bailey D, Phan V, Litalien C, Ducruet T, Merouani A, Lacroix J, Gauvin F (2007) Risk factors of acute renal failure in critically ill children: A prospective descriptive epidemiological study. Pediatr Crit Care Med 8:29–35

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Naik S, Sharma J, Yengkom R, Kalrao V, Mulay A (2014) Acute kidney injury in critically ill children: Risk factors and outcomes. Indian J Crit Care Med 18:129–33

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  23. Glanzmann C, Frey B, Vonbach P, Meier CR (2015) Drugs as risk factors of acute kidney injury in critically ill children. Pediatr Nephrol 31:145–151

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. Schneider J, Khemani R, Grushkin C, Bart R (2010) Serum creatinine as stratified in the RIFLE score for acute kidney injury is associated with mortality and length of stay for children in the pediatric intensive care unit. Crit Care Med 38:933–939

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. Vachvanichsanong P, Dissaneewate P, Lim A, McNeil E (2006) Childhood acute renal failure: 22-year experience in a university hospital in southern Thailand. Pediatrics 118:e786–e791

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. Patzer L (2008) Nephrotoxicity as a cause of acute kidney injury in children. Pediatr Nephrol 23:2159–2173

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Andreoli SP (2009) Acute kidney injury in children. Pediatr Nephorl 24:253–263

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Misurac JM, Knoderer CA, Leiser JD, Nailescu C, Wilson AC, Andreoli SP (2013) Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are an important cause of acute kidney injury in children. J Pediatr 162:1153–1159

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  29. Uchino S, Kellum JA, Bellomo R, Doig GS, Morimatsu H, Morgera S, Schetz M, Tan I, Bouman C, Macedo E, Gibney N, Tolwani A, Ronco C (2005) Acute renal failure in critically ill patients: a multinational, multicenter study. JAMA 294:813–818

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  30. Cartin-Ceba R, Kashiouris M, Plataki M, Kor DJ, Gajic O, Casey ET (2012) Risk factors for development of acute kidney injury in critically ill patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies. Crit Care Res Pract 2012:691013

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  31. Pannu N, Nadim MK (2008) An overview of drug-induced acute kidney injury. Crit Care Med 36:S216–S223

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  32. Goldstein SL, Kirkendall E, Nguyen H, Schaffzin JK, Bucuvalas J, Bracke T, Seid M, Ashby M, Foertmeyer N, Brunner L, Lesko A, Barclay C, Lannon C, Muething S (2013) Electronic health record identification of nephrotoxin exposure and associated acute kidney injury. Pediatrics 132:e756–e767

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  33. Kane-Gill SL, Sileanu FE, Murugan R, Trietley GS, Handler SM, Kellum JA (2015) Risk factors for acute kidney injury in older adults with critical illness: a retrospective cohort study. Am J Kidney Dis 65:860–869

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  34. Kirkendall ES, Spires WL, Mottes TA, Schaffzin JK, Barclay C, Goldstein SL (2014) Development and performance of electronic acute kidney injury triggers to identify pediatric patients at risk for nephrotoxic medication-associated harm. Appl Clin Inform 5:313–333

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  35. Faubel S (2008) Pulmonary complications after acute kidney injury. Adv Chronic Kidney Dis 15:284–296

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  36. Mehta RL, Awdishu L, Davenport A, Murray PT, Macedo E, Cerdad J, Chakaravarthi R, Holden AL, Goldstein SL (2015) Phenotype standardization for drug-induced kidney disease. Kidney Int 88:226–234

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  37. Boyer A, Gruson D, Bouchet S, Clouzeau B, Hoang-Nam B, Vargas F, Gilles H, Molimard M, Rogues AM, Moore N (2013) Aminoglycosides in septic shock: an overview, with specific consideration given to their nephrotoxic risk. Drug Saf 36:217–230

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  38. Downes KJ, Patil NR, Rao MB, Koralkar R, Harris WT, Clancy JP, Goldstein SL, Askenazi DJ (2015) Risk factors for acute kidney injury during aminoglycoside therapy in patients with cystic fibrosis. Pediatr Nephrol 30:1879–1888

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  39. Kane-Gill SL, Kirisci L, Verrico MM, Rothschild JM (2011) Analysis of risk factors for adverse drug events in critically ill patients. Crit Care Med 40:823–828

    Article  Google Scholar 

  40. Price JF, Mott AR, Dickerson HA, Jeffries FL, Nelson DP, Change AC, O'Brian Smith E, Towbin JA, Dreyer WJ, Denfield SW, Goldstein SL (2008) Worsening renal function in children hospitalized with decompensated heart failure: evidence for a pediatric cardiorenal syndrome? Pediatr Crit Care Med 9:279–284

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  41. Li S, Krawczeski CD, Zappitelli M, Devarajan P, Thiessen-Philbrook H, Coca SG, Kim RW, Parikh CR (2011) Incidence, risk factors, and outcomes of acute kidney injury after pediatric cardiac surgery: A prospective multicenter study. Crit Care Med 39:1493–1499

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  42. Lee BS, Byun SY, Chung ML, Chang JY, Kim HY, Kim EA, Kim KS, Pi SY (2010) Effect of furosemide on ductal closure and renal function in indomethacin-treated preterm infants during the early neonatal period. Neonatology 98:191–199

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  43. McKamy S, Hernandez E, Jahng M, Moriwaki T, Deveikis A, Le J (2011) Incidence and risk factors influencing the development of vancomycin nephrotoxicity in children. J Pediatr 158:422–426

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  44. Mirrakhimov AE, Voore P, Khan M, Ali AM (2015) Tumor lysis syndrome: A clinical review. World J Crit Care Med 4:130–138

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  45. Rheault MN, Zhang L, Selewski DT, Kallash M, Tran CL, Seamon M, Katsoufis C, Ashoor I, Hernandez J, Supe-Markovina K, D'Allessandri-Silva C, DeJesus-Gonzalez N, Vasylyeva TL, Formeck C, Woll C, Gbadegesin R, Geier P, Devarajan P, Carpenter SL, Kerlin BA, Smoyer WE (2015) AKI in children hospitalized with nephrotic syndrome. Clin J Am Soc Nephrol 7:2110–2118

    Article  Google Scholar 

  46. Askenazi DJ, Ambalavanan N, Goldstein SL (2008) Acute kidney injury in critically ill newborns: what do we know? What do we need to learn? Pediatr Nephrol 24:265–274

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  47. Hanna MH, Askenazi DJ, Selewski DT (2016) Drug-induced acute kidney injury in neonates. Curr Opin Pediatr 28:180–187

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  48. Goldstein SL (2014) Renal recovery at different ages. Nephron Clin Pract 127:21–24

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  49. Levine DP (2005) Vancomycin: a history. Clin Infect Dis 42[Suppl 1]:S5–12

    Google Scholar 

  50. Elyasi S, Khalili H, Dashti-Khavidaki S, Mohammadpour A (2012) Vancomycin-induced nephrotoxicity: mechanism, incidence, risk factors and special populations. A literature review. Eur J Clin Pharmacol 68:1243–1255

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  51. Totapally BR, Machado J, Lee H, Paredes A, Raszynski A (2013) Acute kidney injury during vancomycin therapy in critically ill children. Pharmacotherapy 33:598–602

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  52. Moffett BS, Hilvers PS, Dinh K, Arikan AA, Checchia P, Bronicki R (2014) Vancomycin-associated acute kidney injury in pediatric cardiac intensive care patients. Congenit Heart Dis 10:E6–10

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  53. Sinclair EA, Yenokyan G, McMunn A, Fadrowski JJ, Milstone AM, Lee CK (2014) Factors associated with acute kidney injury in children receiving vancomycin. Ann Pharmacother 48:1555–1562

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  54. Burgess LD, Drew RH (2014) Comparison of the incidence of vancomycin-induced nephrotoxicity in hospitalized patients with and without concomitant piperacillin-tazobactam. Pharmacotherapy 34:670–676

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  55. Kim T, Kandiah S, Patel M, Rab S, Wong J, Xue W, Easley K, Anderson AM (2015) Risk factors for kidney injury during vancomycin and piperacillin/tazobactam administration, including increased odds of injury with combination therapy. BMC Res Notes 8:579

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  56. Hammond DA, Smith MN, Painter JT, Meena NK, Lusardi K (2016) Comparative incidence of acute kidney injury in critically ill Patients receiving vancomycin with concomitant piperacillin-tazobactam or cefepime: A retrospective cohort study. Pharmacotherapy 36:463–471

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  57. Oliveira JFP, Silva CA, Barbieri CD, Oliveira GM, Zanetta DM, Burdmann EA (2009) Prevalence and risk factors for aminoglycoside nephrotoxicity in intensive care units. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 53:2887–2891

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  58. Kellum JA, Lameire N (2013) Diagnosis, evaluation, and management of acute kidney injury: a KDIGO summary (Part 1). Crit Care 17:204

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  59. Balestracci A, Ezquer M, Elmo ME, Molini A, Thorel C, Torrents M, Toledo I (2015) Ibuprofen-associated acute kidney injury in dehydrated children with acute gastroenteritis. Pediatr Nephrol 30:1873–1878

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  60. McGregor TL, Jones DP, Wang L, Danciu I, Bridges BC, Fleming GM, Shirey-Rice J, Chen L, Byrne DW, Van Driest SL (2015) Acute kidney injury incidence in noncritically ill hospitalized children, adolescents, and young adults: a retrospective observational study. Am J Kidney Dis 67:384–390

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  61. Askenazi DJ, Feig DI, Graham NM, Hui-Stickle S, Goldstein SL (2005) 3-5 year longitudinal follow-up of pediatric patients after acute renal failure. Kidney Int 69:184–189

    Article  Google Scholar 

  62. Zappitelli M, Moffett BS, Hyder A, Goldstein SL (2010) Acute kidney injury in non-critically ill children treated with aminoglycoside antibiotics in a tertiary healthcare centre: a retrospective cohort study. Nephrol Dial Transplant 26:144–150

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  63. Menon S, Kirkendall ES, Nguyen H, Goldstein SL (2014) Acute kidney injury associated with high nephrotoxic medication exposure leads to chronic kidney disease after 6 months. J Pediatr 165:522–527.e2

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  64. Mammen C, Abbas Al A, Skippen P, Nadel H, Levine D, Collet JP, Matsell DG (2011) Long-term risk of CKD in children surviving episodes of acute kidney injury in the intensive care unit: a prospective cohort study. Am J Kidney Dis 59:523–530

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  65. Zappitelli M, Washburn KK, Arikan AA, Loftis L, Ma Q, Devarajan P, Parikh CR, Goldstein SL (2007) Urine neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin is an early marker of acute kidney injury in critically ill children: a prospective cohort study. Crit Care 11:R84

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  66. Fuchs TC, Hewitt P (2011) Biomarkers for drug-induced renal damage and nephrotoxicity—an overview for applied toxicology. AAPS J 13:615–631

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  67. Zhou X, Qu Z, Zhu C, Lin Z, Huo Y, Wang X, Wang J, Li B (2016) Identification of urinary microRNA biomarkers for detection of gentamicin-induced acute kidney injury in rats. Regul Toxicol Pharmacol 78:78–84

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  68. Pavkovic M, Robinson-Cohen C, Nicoara O, Chua A, Cardenas-Gonzalez M, Bijol V, Ramachandran K, Hampson L, Piromohamed M, Antoine DJ, Frendl G, Jimmelfarb J, Waikar SS, Vaidya VS (2016) Detection of drug-induced acute kidney injury in humans using urinary KIM-1, miR-21, -200c and -423. Toxicol Sci. doi:10.1093/toxsci/kfw077

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  69. Pavkovic M, Vaidya VS (2016) MicroRNAs and drug-induced kidney injury. Pharmacol Ther 163:48–57

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  70. Basu RK, Kaddourah A, Terrell T, Mottes T, Arnold P, Jacobs J, Andringa J, Goldstein SL (2015) Assessment of Worldwide Acute Kidney Injury, Renal Angina and Epidemiology in critically ill children (AWARE): study protocol for a prospective observational study. BMC Nephrol 16:24

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  71. Sutherland SM, Chawla LS, Kane-Gill SL, Hsu RK, Kramer AA, Goldstein SL, Kellum JA, Ronco C, Bagshaw SM (2016) Utilizing electronic health records to predict acute kidney injury risk and outcomes: workgroup statements from the 15(th) ADQI Consensus Conference. Can J Kidney Health Dis 3:11

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  72. Leblanc M, Kellum JA, Gibney RT, Lieberthal W, Tumlin J, Mehta R (2005) Risk factors for acute renal failure: inherent and modifiable risks. Curr Opin Crit Care 11:533–536

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  73. Nolin TD, Himmelfarb J (2010) Mechanisms of drug-induced nephrotoxicity. Handb Exp Pharmacol 2010(196):111–130

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to John A. Kellum.

Ethics declarations

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest

JA Kellum receives grant and consulting fees from Astute Medical, Inc., Baxter, Inc., and Bard Inc.

Funding

5T32DK091202-05, NIH/NIDDK

Additional information

Answers to questions

1: d

2: b

3: e

4: c

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Joyce, E.L., Kane-Gill, S.L., Fuhrman, D.Y. et al. Drug-associated acute kidney injury: who’s at risk?. Pediatr Nephrol 32, 59–69 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00467-016-3446-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00467-016-3446-x

Keywords

Navigation