A nomogram for predicting the mortality of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus complicated with acute kidney injury in the intensive care unit

BACKGROUND: There is no predictive tool for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients with acute kidney injury (AKI). Our study aimed to establish an effective nomogram model for predicting mortality in T2DM patients with AKI. METHOD: Data on T2DM patients with AKI were obtained from the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care III. 70% and 30% of the patients were randomly selected as the training and validation cohorts, respectively. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to identify factors associated with death in T2DM patients with AKI. Factors significantly associated with survival outcomes were used to construct a nomogram predicting 90-day mortality. The nomogram effect was evaluated by receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, Hosmer‒Lemeshow test, calibration curve, and decision curve analysis (DCA). RESULTS: There were 4375 patients in the training cohort and 1879 in the validation cohort. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that age, BMI, chronic heart failure, coronary artery disease, malignancy, stages of AKI, white blood cell count, blood urea nitrogen, arterial partial pressure of oxygen and partial thromboplastin time were independent predictors of patient survival. The results showed that the nomogram had a higher area under the curve value than the sequential organ failure assessment score and simplified acute physiology score II. The Hosmer‒Lemeshow test and calibration curve suggested that the nomogram had a good calibration effect. The DCA curve showed that the nomogram model had good clinical application value. CONCLUSION: The nomogram model accurately predicted 90-day mortality in T2DM patients with AKI. It may provide assistance for clinical decision-making and treatment, thereby reducing the medical burden. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12871-022-01961-6.