Critical Care volume 26 , Article number: Cite this article. Metrics details. Acute kidney injury AKI is a frequently encountered syndrome especially among the critically ill.
However, this syndromic definition encompasses a wide variety of distinct clinical features, varying pathophysiology, etiology and risk factors, and finally very different short- and long-term outcomes.
Lumping all AKI together may conceal unique pathophysiologic processes specific to certain AKI populations, and discovering these AKI subphenotypes might help to develop targeted therapies tackling unique pathophysiological processes.
In this review, we discuss the concept of AKI subphenotypes, current knowledge regarding both clinical and biomarker-driven subphenotypes, interplay with AKI subphenotypes and other ICU syndromes, and potential future and clinical implications.
Acute kidney injury AKI is a common syndrome in hospitalized populations and especially in the critically ill [ 1 , 2 ]. It is associated with prolonged hospitalization, receipt of kidney replacement therapy KRT , persistent loss of kidney function, and death [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]. While the current definition of AKI has enhanced clinical recognition of AKI and promoted critical concepts applicable to AKI populations, combining all patients with AKI into one group may hide sub-groups that are more tightly linked to clinical outcomes [ 5 ] and conceal unique pathophysiologic processes specific to certain AKI populations [ 6 ].
