Urinary epidermal growth factor in kidney disease: A systematic review

Urinary epidermal growth factor (uEGF) is primarily produced by the kidney, and alterations of it have been associated with several kidney diseases. The aim of this review was to describe uEGF levels in presence or progression of kidney diseases. We conducted a systematic review of observational studies with uEGF determination, patients with acute kidney injury, chronic kidney disease, primary or secondary nephropathy, or renal cancer were included. Studies were searched in Medline, Google Scholar, Science Direct, and EBSCO up to August 2, 2021. Participants and measurements characteristics from which uEGF were determined as the specificity, sensitivity, and the area under the ROC curve, whenever available, were gathered. 53 studies were included, the most frequent kidney diseases studied were acute kidney injury, chronic kidney disease, and diabetic nephropathy. In most studies, uEGF levels were lower in cases than in controls. Studies showed that uEGF levels can predict presence or progression of acute kidney injury, chronic kidney disease, and nephropathy. Heterogeneity in the reported uEGF values can be attributed to the different techniques, sampling, and ways of reporting uEGF values.Although uEGF values are lower in patients with almost all kidney diseases and their progression, uEGF evaluation methods should be standardised to be used as a biomarker in clinical practice.