Acute Kidney Stress and Prevention of Acute Kidney Injury

Critical care physicians continue to be challenged to recognize an environment that has the potential to result in acute kidney injury, with its associated short- and long-term consequences. The recent development of cell cycle arrest biomarkers that signal the potential development of acute kidney injury is part of an evolution in the molecular diagnosis and understanding of acute kidney injury. A preinjury phase that may lead to acute kidney injury has been described as "acute kidney stress." This concept has the potential to stimulate research and innovation that will lead to early implementation of measures to prevent or reverse acute kidney injury.