New Strategy for Renoprotection During Coronary Bypass?

An interesting new study has taken a look at a new approach to protecting the kidney function during a coronary artery bypass (CABG) surgery. The study took place in Japan and was published in a recent issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.



As most nephrologists are keenly aware... acute kidney injury is quite common after CABG and carries a high degree of morbidty and mortality. Any strategy to decrease the risk of post-operative AKI would be welcome.


This study took 504 patient undergoing CABG and split them into 2 groups. One group was given human atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) at 0.02 mcg/kg/min at the start of cardiopulmonary bypass and the other group received placebo.


Although there was no mortality difference, the group that received the continuous infusion of ANP during the surgery maintained post-op renal function much better with a significantly lower incidence of AKI.


Now... if only human ANP was available in the USA....