Background To date, there have not been any studies to evaluate the effect of contrast load given during endovascular revascularization on renal function in acute ischemic stroke (AIS) patients.

Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of contrast load on the Creatinine (Cr) levels of AIS patients undergoing endovascular treatment.

Design/methods Consecutive AIS patients in Grady Memorial Hospital were retrospectively analyzed. The AIS transfers from outside hospitals were excluded from this study given uncertainty about prior contrast load and in some instances lack of documented Cr levels. Patients' demographic information, baseline NIHSS, site of occlusion, revascularization modalities were collected. The Cr, immediately before (PRE-Cr) and the highest Cr within 72 h after the endovascular procedure (POST-Cr) were recorded. Descriptive statistics are provided.

Results Forty-three patients (age 68±14; 44% male) with large vessel occlusions were included (25 patients with M1 occlusion, nine patients with M2/3 occlusion, seven patients with ICA occlusion and two patients with basilar/PCA occlusions). The mean NIHSS was 18. Twenty-one percent of the patients were diabetics. Two of the patients had Cr >2.0 at baseline. Sixty percent of the patients had CT Angiography of the head/neck with contrast before the procedure. Patients had PRE and POST Cr of 1.2±0.4 (median: 1.1, IQR: 0.9–1.3) and 1.1±0.5 (median: 1.0, IQR: 0.75–1.2), respectively. None of the 41 patients with baseline Cr <2.0 had Cr elevation >2.0 and only one patient had Cr elevation >50% of baseline. None of two patients with baseline Cr >2.0 had Cr elevation >50% of baseline. None of the patients required dialysis.

Conclusions Our results suggest that endovascular management of acute stroke has minimal impact in kidney function in the first few days after the procedure.

Competing interests A Noorian: None. S Rangaraju: None. K Owada: None. B Glenn: None. S Belagaje: None. A Anderson: None. M Frankel: None. R Gupta: Concentric Medical, Codman Neurovascular, CoAxia, and Rapid Medical. R Nogueira: Concentric Medical, ev3 Neurovascular, CoAxia, and Rapid Medical.