Simon Kok Jensen who defended his PhD dissertation today has conducted four studies on acute kidney injury.

Acute kidney injury is a common and serious condition associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Thus, acute kidney injury places a substantial burden on the healthcare system, which is expected to rise in the coming decades. On this basis, this PhD dissertation examined the occurrence and prognosis of acute kidney injury in Denmark using population-based registries. We assessed the plasma creatinine data from the Danish laboratory databases, the changes in kidney function from before to after acute kidney injury, the regional variation in acute kidney injury incidence and prognosis, and the association between acute kidney injury duration and chronic kidney disease and cardiovascular disease.

The project showed that Danish laboratory databases hold longitudinal and nationwide plasma creatinine data making them an important source of information for studies on kidney diseases. Moreover, we found regional variation in chronic kidney disease and follow-up after acute kidney injury. Finally, we showed that acute kidney injury is associated with long-term changes in kidney function and that acute kidney injury duration is associated with increased risks of chronic kidney disease and subgroups of cardiovascular diseases.

The summary is written by the PhD student.