Albuminuria and other renal damage biomarkers detect acute kidney injury soon after acute ingestion of oxalic acid and potassium permanganate

Abstract Background Deliberate self-poisoning with a combination washing powder containing oxalic acid (H 2 C 2 O 4 ) and potassium permanganate (KMnO 4 ) is a significant medical problem in the Southern Province of Sri Lanka. Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a frequent consequence. Biomarkers for early diagnosis of nephrotoxicity could guide appropriate supportive therapies. Methods We investigated the performance of three serum biomarkers and nine urinary biomarkers in 85 patients in an ongoing multicenter prospective cohort study in Sri Lanka exploring AKI following poisoning. Results Sixty two (62/85, 73%) patients developed AKI (acute kidney injury network, AKIN, criteria). Early and rapid increases in serum creatinine (sCr) peaking on day 3 were observed in AKIN stage 2 and 3 patients. In these patients, serum cystatin C (sCysC) rose more gradually but also peaked on day 3. Biomarker concentrations (normalized to urinary creatinine) of urinary albumin (uAlbumin), clusterin (uClusterin), beta-2-microglobulin (uB2M), osteopontin (uOPN), neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (uNGAL) and kidney injury molecule-1 (uKIM–1) in the AKIN2/3 group increased above the 95th centile concentration of the healthy population. Within 8 h of ingestion, the normalized uAlbumin and sCysC predicted AKIN2/3 with respective area under receiver operating characteristic curve, AUC-ROC values, of 0.94 (95% CI 0.86–1.00) and 0.85 (95% CI 0.76-0.95). Conclusions Urinary albumin was the best performing AKI biomarker following ingestion of H 2 C 2 O 4 /KMnO 4 . This may reflect glomerular injury and/or proximal tubular injury. The urinary albumin concentrations observed in this study could generally be detected using albumin specific dipstick methods, easily available even in resource poor settings.