Abstract:Objective To analyze the risk factors of acute kidney injury (AKI) after extracorporeal circulation (CPB) and the significance of miRNA-203 (miR-203) in early warning of AKI in children with congenital heart disease. Methods A total of 178 children with congenital heart disease ( ≤ 6 years old) who underwent congenital heart surgery in our hospital from September 2016 to January 2018 were enrolled in this research. According to AKI diagnostic criteria, children were divided into AKI group (53 cases) and non AKI group (125 cases). The incidence of AKI was observed. Serum miR-203 expressions were determined by RT-PCR in blood samples before extracorporeal circulation, 2 h, 12 h, 24 h and 48h after extracorporeal circulation. The clinical characteristics of children with and without AKI were compared, and multivariate Logistic regression analysis were used to find out the risk factors of AKI. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of miR-203 was used to analyze the predictive value for AKI. Results There were 53 children (29.78%) with AKI and 125 patients (70.22%) without AKI. The children in AKI group had lower ages, higher incidence of cyanotic disease, longer extracorporeal circulation duration and occlusion of aorta time, a significantly higher proportion of children receiving crystalloid solution for myocardial protection than those of children without AKI (P < 0.05). In the AKI group, the post-operative kidney injury molecule 1 (KIM-1) and miR-203 increased, while the peak value of KIM-1 achieved at 24 h after surgery and the peak value of miR-203 achieved at 12 h after surgery. When the cut-off was 1.700, the AUC of ROC curve of miR-203 at 2 h after extracorporeal circulation were 0.851 (95% CI: 0.775, 0.928), the sensitivity and specificity were respectively 85.42% (95% CI: 0.825, 0.874) and 54.17% (95% CI: 0.537, 0.587). The age < 4 y [Ol^R=1.823 (95% CI: 1.594, 3.953), P = 0.000], cyanotic disease [Ol^R=1.461 (95% CI: 1.254, 1.726), P = 0.005], extracorporeal circulation duration > 175.68 min [Ol^R=2.105 (95% CI: 1.587, 5.265), P = 0.000], occlusion of aorta time > 101.45 min [Ol^R=1.217 (95% CI: 1.082, 1.339), P = 0.000] and miR-203 at 2h after extracorporeal circulation > 1.70 [Ol^R=1.331 (95% CI: 1.160, 3.241), P = 0.022] were independent risk factors of AKI in children with congenital heart disease (P < 0.05). Conclusion Age, preoperative cyanotic disease, extracorporeal circulation duration, occlusion of aorta time and miR-203 at 2h after extracorporeal circulation are independent factors of AKI after extracorporeal circulation. It’s suggested that miR-203 may be the sensitive predictors of acute kidney injury in children with congenital heart disease.