He P, Chen R, Zhou L, et al. - In China, hospitalized adults exhibited an elevated risk of hospital-acquired acute kidney injury (AKI) [HA-AKI] in relation to higher ambient level of nitrogen dioxide (NO ₂ ).

• According to previous studies, an increase in the risk of chronic kidney disease and its progression was shown to be conferred by long-term exposure to air pollution.

• From the Epidemiology of AKI in Chinese Hospitalized patients (EACH2 study), AKI cases (n = 11,293) were selected.

• A significant link was found between ambient levels of NO ₂ and sulfur dioxide and risk of HA-AKI.

• Seemingly, a linear association was found between level of NO ₂ and the risk of HA-AKI, with an estimated odds ratio of 1.063 for each increase of one median absolute deviance in the exposure.

• The link was consistent across the subgroups.