title: Assessment of the RIFLE criteria for the diagnosis of Acute Kidney Injury; a retrospective study in South-Western Ghana.
abstract: Acute kidney injury (AKI) affects 3-7 % of patients admitted to the hospital and approximately 25-30 % of patients in the intensive care unit. RIFLE, a newly developed international consensus classification for AKI, defines three grades of severity-class R (risk), I (injury) and F (failure). The aim of this study was to evaluate whether the RIFLE system of classification can detect the incidence of AKI using retrospective data of in-patients at the Effia-Nkwanta Regional Hospital.
  
  
  
  A total of 1070 in-patients' records spanning a period of 6 months, from July 2014 to December 2014, was used. Demographic data and hospital admission serum creatinine of each participant were used for the calculation of estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) using the 4-variable modification of diet in renal disease (MDRD) equation. Also, the baseline serum creatinine was estimated assuming a standard GFR of 75 ml/min/1.73 m(2) using the simplified MDRD equation.
  
  
  
  Males had higher serum creatinine, eGFR, and baseline serum creatinine than females (P < 0.0001). However, the level of increase in baseline serum creatinine was higher in females than males (P = 0.0212). The percentage ratios of the various classes from the SCr/ePCr (hospital admission serum creatinine/estimated plasma creatinine) criteria (R-1.45, I-1.53 and F-3.26) were higher than that of the eGFR criteria (R-0.34, I-0.11, F-0.12). The SCr/ePCr criteria gave more risk (89.7 %) than that of the eGFR criteria (23.1 %). The number of Injury and normal patients from the eGFR criteria was higher than the SCr/ePCr criteria.
  
  
  
  AKI was common in the ICU population with SCr/ePCr detecting more AKI than the eGFR criteria. Males had more injury and failure than females using the eGFR criteria whereas the SCr/ePCr gave females more risk and injury than males. A prospective cohort study must be employed in subsequent studies using the RIFLE criteria to assess the incidence of AKI in hospitalized patients with known diseases or medical conditions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Laboratory Technology, School of Allied Health Sciences, College of Health and Allied Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana. rephraim@ucc.edu.gh.
authors.forename: Richard K D
authors.initials: RKD
authors.lastname: Ephraim
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Laboratory Technology, School of Allied Health Sciences, College of Health and Allied Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana.
authors.forename: Kwame O
authors.initials: KO
authors.lastname: Darkwah
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Medicine, School of Medical Sciences, College of Health Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana.
authors.forename: Samuel A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Sakyi
authors.affiliation: Kumasi Nursing and Midwifery Training College, Kumasi, Ghana.
authors.forename: Mabel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ephraim
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Medicine, School of Medical Sciences, College of Health Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana.
authors.forename: Enoch O
authors.initials: EO
authors.lastname: Antoh
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Laboratory Technology, School of Allied Health Sciences, College of Health and Allied Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana.
authors.forename: Prince
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Adoba
mesh_terms: D058186:Acute Kidney Injury / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003404:Creatinine / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D005869:Ghana / Q000453:epidemiology; D005919:Glomerular Filtration Rate; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010343:Patient Admission; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012737:Sex Factors; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D003404:Creatinine
keywords: Acute kidney injury; RIFLE criteria; SCr/ePCr criteria; eGFR criteria