REVIEW OF A LARGE CLINICAL SERIES Risk Factors to Predict Renal Failure and Deatl1 in tl1e Medical Intensive Care Unit

renal failure and death in the medical intensive care unit. J lntensh'e Care Med 1996;11:114-119. The ability to predict outcomes based on admission criteria has important implications, both prognostically and for as-sessing interventions on comparable groups. Use ofseverity of disease scoring systems such as the APACHE II score for predicting mortality has become Widespread. There is no comparable formula for acute renal failure. We prospectively evaluated 115 consecutive admissions to the medical inten-sive care unit to define risk for renal failure from admission data and to assess the impact ofadmission hypoalbuminemia levels on outcome. Diagnosis, age, serum creatinine and albumin levels, urinary e1ectrol)1e concentrations and osmol-ality, daily serum creatinine levels, and urine output were recorded. Admission APACHE II score was calculated. Admis