Monitoring of kidney injury in preterm infants

Abstract

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common complication in the neonatal intensive care unit that causes a high mortality of preterm infants and various chronic kidney diseases in adulthood. Preterm infants have immature development of the kidneys at birth. The kidneys continue to develop within a specific time window after birth. However, due to various factors during pregnancy and after birth, preterm infants tend to develop AKI. At present, serum creatinine and urine volume are used for the assessment of kidney injury, and their early sensitivity and specificity have attracted increasing attention. In recent years, various new biomarkers have been identified for early recognition of AKI. This article reviews the features, risk factors, renal function assessment, and prevention/treatment of AKI of preterm infants, in order to provide a reference for improving early diagnosis and treatment of AKI in preterm infants and long-term quality of life.