Acute renal infarction: long-term renal outcome and prognostic factors

Acute renal infarction is a rare occurence, whose  prognosis and long-term outcomes remain poorly studied. This study evaluated whether clinical and radiological features at diagnosis can be associated with the long-term outcomes (blood pressure, kidney function and mortality).

We retrospectively analyzed the demographic, clinical, biological and radiological data of patients with acute renal infarction hospitalized at Rennes University Hospital between 1997 and 2017 (n = 94).

Patients were followed-up for a median of 60 months. At time of diagnosis of acute renal infarction median age was 53 years, 45% of the patients had acute hypertension, and 31% had Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) requiring dialysis in seven patients. The median Lactate DeHydrogenase (LDH) level was 977 IU/mL. The median extent of kidney damage was 14%, with left renal involvement in 51% of patients. At 60 months of follow-up, 66% of patients had developed Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) stage 3 or higher, and 55% had hypertension since diagnosis. Age, acute development of hypertension and AKI at diagnosis were associated with long-term CKD (stage 3 or higher) in multivariate analyses, but the extent of kidney damage was not. During the follow-up, 21% of patients died, and only age resulted as a predisposing factor. No tested factor was correlated with long-term hypertension.

Age, acute development of hypertension, and AKI were correlated with long term CKD, whereas no factor was correlated with long-term hypertension after acute renal infarction.