Drug discontinuation before contrast procedures and the effect on acute kidney injury and other clinical outcomes: a systematic review protocol

BACKGROUND: Contrast-induced acute kidney injury (CI-AKI) is defined as worsening of renal function after the administration of iodinated contrast material. In patients with cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, and/or diabetes, renin-angiotensin system blockers, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, diuretics, and metformin can increase the risk of CI-AKI when undergoing contrast imaging. Despite CI-AKI being the leading iatrogenic cause of acute kidney injury, there is a lack of sufficient scientific evidence supporting which drugs should be stopped, when they should be stopped, and when they should be resumed. The purpose of this systematic review is to assess (1) the effect of withholding medication before contrast procedures on the risk of CI-AKI and other clinical outcomes and (2) the incidence of adverse events occurring after withholding these drugs prior to contrast procedures. This protocol has been registered with PROSPERO, https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/display_record.asp?ID=CRD42016033178. METHODS: An information specialist will assist in searching MEDLINE, Embase, and the Cochrane Library databases to identify randomized controlled trials, observational studies, case reports, and case series. Relevant abstracts from professional society meetings and web-based registries of clinical trials will also be included. Studies included will compare patients aged ≥ 18 years instructed to continue taking the drugs of interest and those advised to stop taking them before undergoing contrast procedures. If these drugs are not withheld prior to contrast procedures, the studies must compare patients who are administered these drugs and those who are not before undergoing contrast procedures. Two reviewers will independently screen the titles and abstracts of the studies obtained from the search using pre-defined inclusion criteria and will then extract data from the full texts of selected studies. The quality of the studies will be assessed by two independent reviewers using the Cochrane Risk of Bias 2.0 tool for randomized trials and the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale for observational studies. DISCUSSION: This systematic review will provide a synthesis of current evidence on the discontinuation of drugs prior to contrast procedures and its effect on CI-AKI and other clinical outcomes. These findings will provide clinicians with guidelines and serve as a strong research base for future studies in this field. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: PROSPERO CRD42016033178 ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s13643-018-0701-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.