Plasma Neutrophil Gelatinase-Associated Lipocalin as a Predictor of Renal Parenchymal Involvement in Infants With Febrile Urinary Tract Infection: A Preliminary Study

BACKGROUND: Urinary tract infection (UTI) is the most common bacterial infection in infants. Renal parenchymal involvement is an important prognostic factor; however, early detection of parenchymal involvement in UTI may be difficult during infancy. This study aimed to assess whether a recently established biomarker of UTI, neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL), can serve as a useful marker for the detection of cortical defects (CD) and to determine the appropriate diagnostic cut-off value of NGAL in infants with febrile UTI. METHODS: Infants hospitalized for febrile UTI were divided into two groups according to the presence of cortical defects on dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA) scintigraphy. Among 64 enrolled infants, 43 (67%) had CD (UTI-CD) and 21 (33%) had no CD (UTI-ND). The white blood cell count, C-reactive protein, and plasma NGAL (pNGAL) levels were determined before antibiotic therapy and compared between the two groups. RESULTS: pNGAL level was significantly higher in the UTI-CD group than in the UTI-ND group (340 µg/L vs 214 µg/L, P=0.002). Multivariate analysis showed that pNGAL level was the only independent predictor of CD (odds ratio 2.759, P=0.039). In the ROC curve analysis, pNGAL showed the highest area under the curve (0.745; 95% confidence interval, 0.561–0.821; P=0.014). The appropriate cut-off value of pNGAL was 267 µg/L (sensitivity, 72.1%; specificity, 71.4%). CONCLUSIONS: pNGAL was found to be a useful marker for early prediction of renal parenchymal involvement in infants with febrile UTI.