Endothelial Dysfunction for Acute Kidney Injury in Coronavirus Disease 2019: How Concerned Should We Be?

The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (CO-VID-19) has rapidly evolved into a global pandemic. Kidney dysfunction is common among patients with COVID-19, and patients who develop acute kidney injury (AKI) have inferior outcomes. There is a growing body of evidence that AKI occurs in a substantial number of patients with COVID-19 and that developing AKI is associated with significantly worse outcomes for COVID-19 patients. The risk for death was amplified when AKI resulted in kidney replacement therapy (KRT). Subject of Review: The Study of the Treatment and Outcomes in Critically Ill Patients with COVID-19 (STOP-COVID) conducted a multicenter retrospective observational study enrolling 3,099 critically ill adults with COVID-19 admitted to intensive care units (ICUs) (J Am Soc Nephrol 2021;32:161-176). A total of 637 of 3,099 patients (20.6%) developed AKI treated with KRT (AKI-KRT) within 14 days of ICU admission, 350 of whom (54.9%) died within 28 days of ICU admission. Predictors of COVID-19 patients' progress to AKI-KRT were higher BMI, higher stages of CKD, lower ratio of the partial pressure of arterial oxygen over the fraction of inspired oxygen (PaO2:FiO2 ratio) on ICU admission, and greater number of vasopressors received on ICU admission. Second Opinion: Recently, some investigations revealed that the independent predictors of COVID-19 with AKI include older age, Black race, diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, mechanical ventilation, higher interleukin-6 level, and use of vasopressor medications. It seems that the underlying comorbidities with preexisting vascular endothelial damage and/or the more serious critically ill CO-VID-19 patients can contribute to the development of AKI and even AKI-KRT.