Description

The inclining incidence of chronic kidney disease which has led to high mortality and immense medical burden over the past decades has become a distressing concern in epidemiology.

Unfortunately, the number of biomarkers that allow the monitoring of chronic kidney disease (CKD) is limited. NGAL is an emerging biomarker which has been shown to be able to aid the diagnosis of kidney injuries.

The evidence for the role of NGAL measurements in a variety of clinical situations leading to AKI (cardiac surgery, kidney transplantation, contrast nephropathy, haemolytic uraemic syndrome and in the intensive care setting) or to CKD (lupus nephritis, glomerulonephritides, obstruction, dysplasia, polycystic kidney disease, IgA nephropathy) is explored. The emerging utility of standardized clinical platforms for reliable measurement of NGAL in plasma (Triage GAL Device; Biosite Incorporated) and urine (ARCHITECT analyzer; Abbott Diagnostics) is also discussed. It will be important in future studies to validate the sensitivity and specificity of GAL concentration measurements in clinical samples from large cohorts and from multiple clinical situations. Such studies will be facilitated by the anticipated widespread availability of standardized commercial tools in the near future.