Post-Market Observation Study of Intra-renal Drug Delivery (PROVIDE)

Acute kidney injury, or AKI, is a rapid decline in renal function characterized by a decrease in urine output and/or an increase in serum creatinine (Cr), and is associated with worsened clinical outcomes and increased healthcare costs. AKI may be caused by numerous factors including interruptions or perturbations of renal blood flow or toxins, and often these factors are extra-renal in origin. AKI diagnoses in hospitalized patients are over one million per year and are projected to continue to grow, due largely to the aging population and increasing numbers of medical and invasive procedures performed on the elderly and the ever-increasing prevalence of diabetes mellitus and its medical complications, as well as increasing awareness within the medical community.

Treatment options for established acute kidney injury are limited and consist mainly of fluid and electrolyte balance (diuretics and/or IV fluids) supportive care up until the point that dialysis or other renal replacement therapy (RRT) is required. Despite the advent of newer drugs, more sophisticated RRT equipment, and increased awareness of the problem, little has changed relative to patient outcomes, which remain poor. Similarly, limited options exist in patients with known risk factors for AKI to prevent its development due to iatrogenic causes (e.g., major surgery, exposure to contrast media).

Targeted Renal Therapy allows for direct delivery of therapeutically relevant doses of various pharmacological agents directly to the renal bed, potentially reducing dose limiting side effects of traditional IV therapy. With Targeted Renal Therapy, or TRT, the kidney can metabolize, conjugate, and/or clear a substantial portion of many agents immediately (known as the "renal first-pass" effect), reducing the amount that is returned to the systemic circulation via the renal veins, thus potentially reducing untoward side effects. While the existence of a renal first-pass effect has been hypothesized in the medical literature for some time, it has not been possible to take clinical advantage of this important physiological function prior to the advent of AngioDynamics' TRT. Thus, TRT has the potential to offer an additional preventative or treatment opportunity in those patients at risk for AKI, or with established AKI, respectively.