Journal Article

Machine learning model for early prediction of acute kidney injury (AKI) in pediatric critical care

Thapa-Chhetry, Binod, Newth, Christopher J. L., Shum, Tunu, Dong, Junzi, Cho, Byung Gu, Inwald, David P., Vaidya, Vinay U., Feng, Ting

2021

Overview

Background Acute kidney injury (AKI) in pediatric critical care patients is diagnosed using elevated serum creatinine, which occurs only after kidney impairment. There are no treatments other than supportive care for AKI once it has developed, so it is important to identify patients at risk to prevent injury. This study develops a machine learning model to learn pre-disease patterns of physiological measurements and predict pediatric AKI up to 48 h earlier than the currently established diagnostic guidelines. Methods EHR data from 16,863 pediatric critical care patients between 1 month to 21 years of age from three independent institutions were used to develop a single machine learning model for early prediction of creatinine-based AKI using intelligently engineered predictors, such as creatinine rate of change, to automatically assess real-time AKI risk. The primary outcome is prediction of moderate to severe AKI (Stage 2/3), and secondary outcomes are prediction of any AKI (Stage 1/2/3) and requirement of renal replacement therapy (RRT). Predictions generate alerts allowing fast assessment and reduction of AKI risk, such as: “patient has 90% risk of developing AKI in the next 48 h” along with contextual information and suggested response such as “patient on aminoglycosides, suggest check level and review dose and indication”. Results The model was successful in predicting Stage 2/3 AKI prior to detection by conventional criteria with a median lead-time of 30 h at AUROC of 0.89. The model predicted 70% of subsequent RRT episodes, 58% of Stage 2/3 episodes, and 41% of any AKI episodes. The ratio of false to true alerts of any AKI episodes was approximately one-to-one (PPV 47%). Among patients predicted, 79% received potentially nephrotoxic medication after being identified by the model but before development of AKI. Conclusions As the first multi-center validated AKI prediction model for all pediatric critical care patients, the machine learning model described in this study accurately predicts moderate to severe AKI up to 48 h in advance of AKI onset. The model may improve outcome of pediatric AKI by providing early alerting and actionable feedback, potentially preventing or reducing AKI by implementing early measures such as medication adjustment.

• Publisher: BioMed Central,BioMed Central Ltd,Springer Nature B.V,BMC
• Subject: Acute kidney injury / Acute Kidney Injury - diagnosis / Acute renal failure / Adolescent / Age / AKI / Aminoglycosides / Area Under Curve / Care and treatment / Child / Child, Preschool / Cohort Studies / Computer Simulation / Creatinine / Critical care / Critical Care - methods / Critical Care Medicine / Demographic aspects / Diagnosis / Drugs / Electronic health records / Emergency Medicine / Feature selection / Female / Humans / Infant / Infant, Newborn / Intensive / Intensive care / Intensive Care Units, Pediatric - organization & administration / Kidney diseases / Length of stay / Machine learning / Machine Learning - trends / Male / Medicine / Medicine & Public Health / Patients / Pediatric critical care / Pediatric intensive care / Pediatrics / Pediatrics - methods / Physiology / Predictive model / ROC Curve / Severity of Illness Index / Testing / Young Adult