Acute kidney injury diagnosis in Intensive Care Units: biomarkers or Information?

In recent years, the diagnosis of acute kidney injury (AKI) has been based on classifications such as RIFLE, AKIN and KDIGO, which has the goal of world standardization and timely recognition of the disease. It is essential that intensivists be aware about these classifications, because most of the time, they will have the first opportunity to diagnose AKI. However, it is still very common that the nephrologist consultation be performed in advanced stages of the AKI, when the interventions to halt the progression are very limited. We recently assessed intensivist on AKI diagnostic criteria, with emphasis on RIFLE, and observed a very low level of knowledge and lack of use in daily practice. Faced with the constant search for new biomarkers of kidney injury, these and other evidences, highlights the urgency of simple actions, such as the beginning of educational interventions in order to familiarize the intensivist with the latest clinical tools for AKI diagnosis.