Acute kidney injury after TAVR: Simple biomarker helps cardiologists identify high-risk patients
Researchers believe they may have identified a new way to determine which transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) patients face an increased risk of renal complications within 30 days of treatment. The group shared its findings in Catheterization and Cardiovascular Interventions.[1]
The C-reactive protein–albumin–lymphocyte (CALLY) index is biomarker derived from routine tests that examines systemic inflammation, immune system activity and nutrition all at once. The team behind this new analysis wanted to explore the potential relationship between CALLY values and short-term TAVR outcomes.
“Initially studied in noncardiac populations, higher CALLY values were associated with better survival,” wrote first author Haitham Abu Khadija, MD, an interventional cardiologist with Kaplan Medical Center in Israel, and colleagues. “More recent TAVR-specific studies have associated lower CALLY values with higher one-year and two-year all-cause mortality. These observations support evaluating the CALLY index in relation to early, 30-day outcomes after TAVR.”
Khadija et al. explored data from 816 consecutive TAVR patients treated at a single facility from 2010 to 2024. All patients underwent transfemoral TAVR. Antiplatelet therapy was utilized in accordance with European Society of Cardiology guidelines.
Baseline CALLY indexes were determined for each patient based on available lab test results. Lab results all came from within 24 hours of the TAVR procedure.
Overall, lower CALLY values were associated with a significantly higher risk of acute kidney injury (AKI) within 30 days of treatment. Lower CALLY values were also linked to a slightly higher risk of all-cause mortality, but that finding “did not reach statistical significance.”
On the other hand, CALLY values did not appear to communicate anything about a patient’s risk of post-TAVR stroke.
“The CALLY index, derived from routinely available laboratory parameters, may serve as a practical adjunct for short-term risk stratification in patients undergoing TAVR,” the authors wrote. “By integrating markers of systemic inflammation, nutritional status, and immune competence, it captures clinically relevant dimensions of patient vulnerability that are not fully represented in conventional risk scores. In the present study, the most consistent signal was observed for AKI, where lower CALLY values were associated with increased early risk.”
Khadija and colleagues added that the CALLY index “may be particularly useful for identifying a high-risk subgroup characterized by impaired inflammatory–nutritional reserve.”
“Given its simplicity, low cost, and reproducibility, the CALLY index represents a scalable tool that may complement existing clinical assessment frameworks and enhance early risk awareness in contemporary TAVR practice,” they wrote.
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Michael has more than 19 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.