Second Study Supports that NGAL Test Identifies Acute Kidney Injury Early in Critically Ill Patients

WALTHAM, Mass., Dec. 17  /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- According to a new study published last week in Intensive Care Medicine, a novel bedside blood test measured in critically ill patients being admitted to the intensive care unit can help to identify which patients are at risk for acute kidney injury (AKI). The study carried out in Vicenza, Italy, tested blood samples collected during admission to the ICU using the Triage® NGAL Test, a product currently sold by Inverness Medical Innovations, Inc. (NYSE:IMA) outside of the United States.*

AKI is a common and often devastating complication for up to 25% of critically ill patients admitted to the ICU.  AKI can lead to increasing hospital length of stay and associated costs, and also increases risk of death.  AKI is often detected too late into its clinical progression when a substantial portion of kidney  function may already have been lost and the window for initiating treatment to prevent further harm has closed.

Earlier this year a small study conducted at the University Hospital of Clermont-Ferrand, France and published in the Journal of Critical Care found that a new bedside blood test for a blood biomarker called neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) offered the promise of rapidly assessing if a critically ill patient is suffering from AKI.  Now results from the prestigious Department of Nephrology at San Bortolo Hospital in Vicenza Italy have confirmed these findings in a larger study published this week in Intensive Care Medicine.

In this study of 301 critically ill patients, plasma NGAL measured with the Triage NGAL Test was a statistically significant diagnostic marker for AKI development within the next 48 hours (area-under-ROC 0.78), and for renal replacement therapy use (area-under-ROC 0.82).   Moreover, peak plasma NGAL concentrations increased with worsening AKI severity (R=0.554, p