Imran Khan  ( Lady Reading Hospital )

Thanks for raising the questions regarding the study.The severity/stages of AKI as per AKIN classification were not mentioned. We were interested in the frequency of AKI as mentioned in the title. The severity of AKI needs another whole study to stratify the injury according to the severity and that would have changed the title. The minimum value of 0.3 mg/dl was taken from the AKIN criteria.
Kidney disease Outcomes Quality Initiative or Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcomes Criterion are cumbersome involving urine output besides serum creatinine. Besides we wanted to exclude the patients with a value that was above normal (1.2mg/dl) used in our center. This was a simple method to rule out those patients.
The third point raised by the reader is valid only for prospective studies when there are lost to follow up. It was a snapshot study with short term effects within the hospital. I would have agreed if this had been a prospective study with a long term follow up, the flow diagram would have been necessary then.