Astute Medical And Cardio Renal Society Of America Form Educational Partnership For AKI Prevention

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Sep 21, 2016, 08:00 ET

SAN DIEGO, Sept. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Astute Medical, Inc., developer of biomarkers for better healthcare, today announced a partnership with the Cardio Renal Society of America (CRSA) that includes unrestricted funding to focus educational activity on the identification and prevention of acute kidney injury (AKI).

AKI is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in American hospitals, striking up to 50 percent of critically ill patients¹ and in some cases doubling death rates.² It often occurs in patients being treated for sepsis, heart failure, respiratory issues, and after major surgery.³ While AKI can be prevented through early identification, physicians are often challenged by its lack of specific signs and symptoms,⁴ and the reliance on testing protocols that cannot detect early signals of kidney injury.⁵

Episodes of AKI in hospitalized patients are associated with subsequent development or worsening of chronic kidney disease and heart conditions.^6,7 The association between AKI and chronic kidney disease and heart disease is driving physician interest in understanding how the condition develops in order to advance treatment and prevention.

"The co-existence of both heart and kidney disease contribute to worsening quality of life, lower survival rates, and skyrocketing healthcare costs," said Charles Paltzer, CRSA director of global affairs. "The overlapping nature of these co-morbid conditions requires a collaborative framework and team-based strategies to both prevent and treat conditions at any point in this continuum.

"The Cardio Renal Society of America is in a unique position to address these challenges by providing informed, integrated, health education curricula and clinical guidelines, and we are thankful to Astute Medical for its generous support of our fall series of programs on acute kidney injury."

"We share CRSA's vision of personalized health and collaborative care between physician specialties," said Ryan Roberts, Astute Medical chief commercial officer. "The era of precision medicine is upon us – the educational work being led by CRSA can lead to optimized treatment strategies that may help alleviate the deadly and costly burden of AKI."

CRSA will host a series of educational "Grand Rounds" events on the dates listed below:
October 3: Charlotte, N.C.
October 17: Boston, Mass.
November 7: New York, N.Y.
November 18: Chicago, Ill.
December 5: Orlando, Fla.
January 9: Irvine, Calif.
January 21: Honolulu, Hawaii

For more information on CRSA's "Grand Rounds" AKI educational programs, visit http://www.cardiorenalsociety.org/grand-rounds-dinners.html

Astute Medical has developed the NephroCheck^® Test for use in determining whether a hospitalized patient is at risk of developing moderate to severe AKI in the 12 hours following test administration. Early knowledge that a patient is likely to develop AKI may prompt closer patient surveillance and help prevent permanent kidney damage or death.

About Astute Medical, Inc.
Astute Medical is dedicated to improving the diagnosis of high-risk medical conditions and diseases through the identification and validation of protein biomarkers that can serve as the basis for novel diagnostic tests.

The Company's focus is community- and hospital-acquired acute conditions that require rapid diagnosis and risk assessment. Astute Medical's current areas of interest include abdominal pain, acute coronary syndromes, cerebrovascular injury, kidney injury and sepsis.

Astute Medical is a founding corporate partner of 0by25, a human rights initiative aimed at eliminating preventable and treatable deaths from AKI worldwide by 2025.

Astute Medical's NephroCheck^® Test received 510(k)-clearance through the FDA's de novo classification. The test is CE-marked and available in Europe.

For additional information, please visit AstuteMedical.com and Nephrocheck.com.

Astute Medical, Inc., Astute Medical®, the AM logo, Astute140®, NephroCheck®, the NephroCheck® logo and AKIRisk® are registered trademarks of Astute Medical, Inc. in the United States. For information regarding trademarks and other intellectual property applicable to this product, including international trademarks, please see www.AstuteMedical.com/US/About/IntellectualProperty. PN0601 Rev A 2016/09/20

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¹ Mandelbaum T, Scott DJ, Lee J, et al. Outcome of critically ill patients with acute kidney injury using the AKIN criteria. Crit Care Med. 2011;39(12):2659-2664.
² Dasta JF, Kane-Fill SL, Durtschi, AJ, Pathak DS, Kellum JA. Costs and outcomes of acute kidney injury (AKI) following cardiac surgery. Nephrol Dial Transplant. 2008;23:1970-1974.
³ Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) CKD Work Group. KDIGO 2012 Clinical Practice Guideline for the Evaluation and Management of Chronic Kidney Disease. Kidney Inter., Suppl. 2013; 3:1-150.
⁴ Ronco C, Ricci Z. The concept of risk and the value of novel markers of acute kidney injury. Crit Care. 2013;17:117-118.
⁵ McCullough PA et al. Diagnosis of acute kidney injury using functional and injury biomarkers: workgroup statements from the tenth Acute Dialysis Quality Initiative Consensus Conference. Contrib Nephrol. 2013;182:13-29.
⁶ Chawla LS, Eggers PW, Star RA, Kimmel PL. Acute Kidney Injury and Chronic Kidney Disease as Interconnected Syndromes. N Engl J Med. 2014;371:58-66. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMra1214243.
⁷ Chawla LS, Amdur RL, Shaw AD, et al. Association between AKI and Long-Term Renal and Cardiovascular Outcomes in United States Veterans. Clin J Am Soc Nephrol. 2014;9(3):448-56.