A paper published last week in PLOS One indicates that Astute Medical's NephroCheck test can help predict development of acute kidney failure in patients after undergoing cardiac surgery.
In a study of 50 cardiac surgery patients at the University of Muenster, scientists led by Muenster researcher Alexander Zarbock found that the test could predict progression to AKI with a sensitivity of .92 and a specificity of .81.
NephroCheck assesses AKI risk by measuring insulin-like growth-factor binding protein 7 (IGFBP7) and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases (TIMP-2). Astute began selling the test in Europe in October 2012.
According to Astute, AKI is believed to occur in up to 40 percent of adults who undergo cardiac surgery. However, the company noted, the condition is asymptomatic and difficult to predict using traditional clinical measures.
The study is second published this year on the NephroCheck test, following a prospective, multi-center clinical trial of the test published in February in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.