• BACKGROUND
    • Renal infarction is a rare condition resulting from an acute disruption of renal blood flow, and the cause and outcome of renal infarction are not well established.
  • STUDY DESIGN
    • Case series.
  • SETTING & PARTICIPANTS
    • 438 patients with renal infarction in January 1993 to December 2013 at 9 hospitals in Korea were included. Renal infarction was defined by radiologic findings that included single or multiple wedge-shaped parenchymal perfusion defects in the kidney.
  • PREDICTOR
    • Causes of renal infarction included cardiogenic (n=244 [55.7%]), renal artery injury (n=33 [7.5%]), hypercoagulable (n=29 [6.6%]), and idiopathic (n=132 [30.1%]) factors.
  • OUTCOMES
    • We used recurrence, acute kidney injury (AKI; defined as creatinine level increase ≥ 0.3mg/dL within 48 hours or an increase to 150% of baseline level within 7 days during the sentinel hospitalization), new-onset estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR)<60mL/min/1.73m(2) (for >3 months after renal infarction in the absence of a history of decreased eGFR), end-stage renal disease (ESRD; receiving hemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis because of irreversible kidney damage), and mortality as outcome metrics.
  • RESULTS
    • Treatment included urokinase (n=19), heparin (n=342), warfarin (n=330), and antiplatelet agents (n=157). 5% of patients died during the initial hospitalization. During the median 20.0 (range, 1-223) months of follow-up, 2.8% of patients had recurrent infarction, 20.1% of patients developed AKI, 10.9% of patients developed new-onset eGFR<60mL/min/1.73m(2), and 2.1% of patients progressed to ESRD.
  • LIMITATIONS
    • This was a retrospective study; it cannot clearly determine the specific causal mechanism for certain patients or provide information about the causes of mortality. 16 patients were excluded from the prognostic analysis.
  • CONCLUSIONS
    • Cardiogenic origins were the most important causes of renal infarction. Despite aggressive treatment, renal infarction can lead to AKI, new-onset eGFR<60mL/min/1.73m(2), ESRD, and death.