Accurate preoperative risk prediction for perioperative complications such as acute kidney injury (AKI) may serve to better inform patients and families of risk before surgery, assist with resource requirement planning, and aid with cohort enrichment for enrolment into clinical trials. Where a specific risk factor is modifiable, it may offer a potential therapeutic target for risk reduction. The report by Wang and colleagues describes the modest incremental benefit of N-terminal pro brain natriuretic peptide levels when added to almost 20 other variables for the preoperative prediction of AKI after cardiac surgery. This is consistent with previous smaller studies, but there are important additional questions still to be answered before this biomarker might be used for this purpose in clinical practice.

对急性肾损伤 (AKI) 等围手术期并发症进行准确的术前风险预测可能有助于在术前更好地告知患者和家属风险，协助资源需求规划，并有助于队列充实以参与临床试验。如果特定的风险因素是可修改的，它可能会为降低风险提供潜在的治疗目标。Wang 及其同事的报告描述了将 N 端脑钠肽前体水平添加到近 20 个其他变量以用于心脏手术后 AKI 的术前预测时的适度增量益处。这与之前的小型研究一致，但在临床实践中将此生物标志物用于此目的之前，仍有一些重要的额外问题需要回答。