$$\rightleftharpoonup{xx}$$
$$\longleftharp{xx}$$,
$$\longrightharp{xx}$$,
Acute kidney injury (AKI) affects up to 50% of patients with trauma admitted to the intensive care unit1. Patients who develop AKI tend to have longer hospital and intensive care unit lengths of stay and a threefold greater risk of mortality2,3,4. Currently, AKI is most commonly defined by the Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) guidelines, which are based on changes in serum creatinine concentration from baseline or periods of prolonged oliguria5. Baseline creatinine concentration data are unavailable in most patients with trauma, and estimation equations are unreliable and have not been validated in patients with trauma6. In addition, serum creatinine concentration may not change until at least 24 h after the injury, precluding early identification and intervention7. While research suggests that urine output is an earlier indicator of AKI than serum creatinine concentration, the KDIGO criteria require a minimum of 6 h of oliguria, which precludes interventions targeting injury prevention8. The optimal hourly urine output threshold and appropriate duration of oliguria for defining AKI are also debated, which limit its effectiveness as an early marker of the disease9,10. Thus, current diagnostic measures for AKI are not useful in trauma settings, lead to delayed diagnosis of AKI, and do not provide real-time information regarding a patient's risk status for developing AKI.
While the development of AKI in a trauma setting is complex and likely associated with several causes such as poor renal perfusion due to hypovolemia, reduced renal blood flow due to vasoconstriction, trauma-related inflammation, or ischemia-reperfusion injury, renal hypoxia is a common factor among most forms of AKI11,12. In particular, the medulla region of the kidney is highly susceptible to an imbalance between oxygen demand and supply in the trauma setting due to reduced oxygen delivery and high metabolic activity associated with sodium reabsorption. Thus, if it were possible to measure renal medulla oxygenation, it may be possible to monitor a patient's risk status for developing AKI. While this is not clinically feasible, urinary partial pressure of oxygen (PuO2) at the outlet of the kidney strongly correlates with medullary tissue oxygenation13,14. Other studies have shown that it is possible to measure bladder PuO2 and that it changes in response to stimuli that alter medullary oxygen and renal pelvis PuO2 levels, such as a decrease in renal blood flow15,16,17. These studies suggest that PuO2 may indicate end-organ perfusion and could be useful for monitoring the impact of interventions in trauma settings on renal function.
To monitor PuO2 noninvasively, a noninvasive PuO2 monitor was developed that can easily connect to the end of a urinary catheter outside the body. The noninvasive PuO2 monitor consists of three main components: a temperature sensor, a luminescence quenching oxygen sensor, and a thermal-based flow sensor. Since each oxygen sensor is optically based and relies on the Stern-Volmer relationship to quantify the relationship between luminescence and oxygen concentration, a temperature sensor is necessary to offset any potential confounding effects of changes in temperature. The flow sensor is important to quantify urine output and to determine the direction and magnitude of urine flow. All three components are connected by a combination of male, female, and t-shaped luer lock connectors and poly-vinyl chloride (PVC) flexible tubing. The end with the conical connector connects to the outlet of the urinary catheter, and the end with tubing over the conical connector connects slides over the connector on the urine collection bag.
Despite measuring distally to the bladder, a recent study showed that low urinary PuO2 during cardiac surgery is associated with an increased risk of developing AKI18,19. Similarly, current animal models have primarily focused on the early detection of AKI during cardiac surgery and sepsis14,20,21,22. Thus, questions remain about the use of this novel device in settings of trauma. The aim of this research is to establish PuO2 as an early marker of AKI and investigate its use as a resuscitative endpoint in patients with trauma. This manuscript describes a porcine model of hemorrhagic shock that includes the placement of the noninvasive PuO2 monitor, a bladder PuO2 sensor, and a tissue oxygen sensor in the renal medulla. Data from the noninvasive monitor will be compared to bladder PuO2 and invasive tissue oxygen measurements. The noninvasive monitor also includes a flow sensor which will be useful for understanding the relationship between urine flow rate and oxygen ingress, which reduces the ability to infer renal medullar tissue oxygenation from noninvasive PuO2 as urine traverses the urinary tract. Additionally, data from the three oxygen sensors will be compared to systemic vital signs, such as mean arterial pressure. The central hypothesis is that noninvasive PuO2 data will strongly correlate with invasive medullary oxygen content and will reflect medullary hypoxia during resuscitation. Noninvasive PuO2 monitoring has the potential to improve trauma-related outcomes by identifying AKI earlier and serving as a novel resuscitative endpoint after hemorrhage that is indicative of end-organ rather than systemic oxygenation.