Clinical adjudication in acute kidney injury studies: findings from the pivotal TIMP-2*IGFBP7 biomarker study

Kathleen D Liu; Anitha Vijayan; Mitchell H Rosner; Jing Shi; Lakhmir S Chawla; John A Kellum

doi:10.1093/ndt/gfw238

Clinical adjudication in acute kidney injury studies: findings from the pivotal TIMP-2*IGFBP7 biomarker study

Nephrol Dial Transplant. 2016 Oct;31(10):1641-6. doi: 10.1093/ndt/gfw238. Epub 2016 Jun 23.

Authors

Kathleen D Liu¹, Anitha Vijayan², Mitchell H Rosner³, Jing Shi⁴, Lakhmir S Chawla⁵, John A Kellum⁶

Affiliations

¹ Division of Nephrology, Department of Medicine and Division of Critical Care Medicine, Department of Anesthesia, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA.
² Division of Nephrology, Department of Medicine, Washington University, St Louis, MO, USA.
³ Department of Medicine, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA.
⁴ Statistics, Walker Bioscience, Carlsbad, CA, USA.
⁵ Department of Medicine, Divisions of Intensive Care Medicine and Nephrology, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Washington, DC, USA.
⁶ Center for Critical Care Nephrology, Department of Critical Care Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, USA.

Abstract

Background: The NEPROCHECK test (Astute Medical, San Diego, CA, USA) combines urinary tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases-2 (TIMP-2) and insulin-like growth factor binding protein 7 (IGFBP7) to identify patients at high risk for acute kidney injury (AKI). In a US Food and Drug Administration registration trial (NCT01573962), AKI was determined by a three-member clinical adjudication committee. The objectives were to examine agreement among adjudicators as well as between adjudicators and consensus criteria for AKI and to determine the relationship of biomarker concentrations and adjudicator agreement.

Methods: Subjects were classified as AKI 3/3, 2/3, 1/3 or 0/3 according to the proportion of adjudicators classifying the case as AKI. Subjects were classified as Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) AKI(+) when stage 2 or 3 AKI criteria were met.

Results: Concordance between adjudicators and between adjudicators and KDIGO criteria were lower for AKI than non-AKI subjects [78.9 versus 97.3% (P < 0.001) and 91.5 versus 97.9% (P = 0.01)]. Subjects who were AKI 3/3 or 2/3 but KDIGO AKI(-) had higher median [TIMP-2]•[IGFBP7] compared with those who were AKI-1/3 or 0/3 but KDIGO AKI(+) {2.78 [interquartile range (IQR) 2.33-3.56] versus 0.52 [IQR 0.26-1.64]; P = 0.008}. [TIMP-2]•[IGFBP7] levels were highest in patients with AKI 3/3 and lowest in AKI 0/3, whereas AKI 2/3 and 1/3 exhibited intermediate values.

Conclusions: In this analysis, urine [TIMP-2]•[IGFBP7] levels correlated to clinically adjudicated AKI better than to KDIGO criteria. Furthermore, in difficult cases where adjudicators overruled KDIGO criteria, the biomarker test discriminated well. This study highlights the importance of clinical adjudication of AKI for biomarker studies and lends further support for the value of urine [TIMP-2]•[IGFBP7].

Keywords: acute kidney injury; biomarkers; diagnosis; insulin-like growth factor binding protein 7; tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases-2.

Publication types

Observational Study

MeSH terms

Acute Kidney Injury / blood
Acute Kidney Injury / classification
Acute Kidney Injury / diagnosis*
Acute Kidney Injury / urine
Adult
Biomarkers / blood*
Biomarkers / urine*
Female
Humans
Insulin-Like Growth Factor Binding Proteins / analysis*
Male
Prognosis
Prospective Studies
Tissue Inhibitor of Metalloproteinase-2 / analysis*

Substances

Biomarkers
Insulin-Like Growth Factor Binding Proteins
TIMP2 protein, human
insulin-like growth factor binding protein-related protein 1
Tissue Inhibitor of Metalloproteinase-2