Evaluation of a diagnostic test: the NEPHROCHECK® TEST for the early detection of acute kidney injury

Economics that finds broad application in health care it represents a powerful tool that helps the decision-making process of allocating scarce resources in order to improve health outcomes. Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) is a frequent complication after cardiac surgery. As described in this work, prevention and early detection of AKI may help avoiding negative outcomes and increased health care costs associated with it. The present dissertation focuses on the evaluation of the NephroCheck® Test as a diagnostic tool for the early detection of AKI. Specifically, this work assesses the ability of the NephroCheck® Test to predict the probability of developing AKI in patients who undergo cardiac surgery and assesses its accuracy as a diagnostic test.