Serum NGAL in Critically Ill Children in ICU from a Single Center in Egypt

Introduction. The mortality and morbidity associated with acute kidney injury (AKI), unfortunately, remain unacceptably high. We aimed to detect the extent of serum neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) to early detect AKI in critically ill children. Subjects and Methods. This is a case control study. It included 75 subjects that include 15 as controls and 60 critically ill children. Patients were further subdivided according to RIFLE criteria into two other categories: patients who developed AKI and patients who did not develop AKI. Serum NGAL assayed on admission and after 3 days. Results. There was significant increase in the level of NGAL among patients group when compared with control group. Also, 21.7% of children admitted to PICU developed AKI from which 8.3% needed dialysis. The receiver operating characteristic curve of NGAL at day 0 revealed AUC of 0.63 with 95% CI of 0.50-0.77. At a cutoff value of 89.5 ng/mL, the sensitivity of NGAL was 84.6%, while specifcity was 59.6%, positive predictive value was 36.7%, negative predictive value was 68.4%, and accuracy was 93.3% in diagnosis of AKI. Conclusion. We found that NGAL acts as a sensitive marker rather than a specific one for AKI. At the same time, it presents as a negative predictive value more valuable than being a positive predictive value in detecting AKI.