Abstract
Introduction: Kidney injury is a serious complication after cardiovascular surgery. Left
ventricular dysfunction, pre-operative kidney dysfunction and inflammation can predict
kidney injury after myocardial reperfusion.
Objectives: We aimed to study whether short-term protein restriction (PR) would influence
blood urea nitrogen (BUN) levels after myocardial reperfusion injury.
Materials and Methods: Male Wistar rats fed with either AIN-93M or AIN-93M protein
restricted diet one week before myocardial reperfusion injury. After surgery, feeding
continued with AIN-93M for 1 week.
Results: BUN levels increased significantly compared to the pre-operative level in the
control group (P=0.03) and decreased significantly in the protein-restricted group (P=0.01).
Multivariate analysis showed that PR through its effect on blood glucose (β=1.2, 95% CI=0.1-
2.34), IL-6 (β=-2.22, 95% CI=-3.9–-0.54) and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF)
(β=-1.21, 95% CI=-2.34- 0.09) was able to protect the kidney from myocardial reperfusion.
Conclusion: Short-term PR through modulating pre-operative IL-6, post-operative blood
glucose levels and LVEF could prevent kidney injury after myocardial reperfusion injury.