Patent ID: 7977110

Claim:
A method for distinguishing between kidney dysfunctions in a patient having an unknown renal injury status upon admission to a medical facility, including a kidney dysfunction that presents a significant risk of progressing with time to acute renal failure, and a kidney dysfunction that does not, comprising the steps at the time of admission of the patient to the medical facility of: determining the level of creatinine in an isolated serum or plasma sample from a blood sample obtained from the admitted patient, to obtain a creatinine assay result; determining the level of NGAL in a urine sample obtained from the admitted patient to obtain a urinary NGAL assay result; comparing the creatinine assay result against a creatinine cutoff level; and comparing the urinary NGAL assay result against a urinary NGAL cutoff level, wherein when the urinary NGAL assay result is above the urinary NGAL cutoff level, the patient has an acute renal injury that presents a significant risk of progressing with time to acute renal failure, and when the urinary NGAL assay result is below the urinary NGAL cutoff level and the creatinine assay result is above the creatinine cutoff level, the patient has chronic kidney disease or pre-renal azotemia.