Prognostic Scores for Acute Kidney Injury in Critically Ill Patients

Background: Numerous prognostic scores have been developed and used in intensive care; however, the applicability and effectiveness of these scores in critically ill patients with acute kidney injury may vary due to the characteristics of this population. Objective: To assess the predictive capacity of the Simplified Acute Physiology Score III (SAPS III), Sequential Sepsis-related Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) and Nursing Activities Score (NAS) prognostic scoring systems for acute kidney injury in critically ill patients. Methods: Cohort, prospective and quantitative study with follow-up of 141 critical patients in intensive care. A questionnaire was used to collect information about the capacity of prognostic scoring systems to predict AKI. Mann–Whitney, Kruskal–Wallis and Bonferroni-corrected Mann–Whitney tests were used and the statistical significance was considered to be at two-sided p < 0.05. Results: It was revealed that 41.85% of patients developed acute kidney injury during their stay in the Intensive Care Unit and indicated greater severity assessed by the medians of prognostic scoring systems—SAPS III [55 (42–65 vs. 38 (32–52), p < 0.001], SOFA [3.3 (2.26–5.00) vs. 0.66 (0.06–2.29), p < 0.001] and NAS [90 (75–95) vs. 97 (91–103), p < 0.001]—when compared to patients without kidney damage. Conclusions: The SAPS III, SOFA and NAS prognostic scoring systems showed good predictive capacity for acute kidney injury in critically ill patients. This study was not registered.