Preprocedural Serum Albumin and Early Contrast-Associated Acute Kidney Injury After Elective Carotid Artery Stenting: Incremental Prognostic Information Beyond the PCI-Derived Mehran Score

Background/Objectives: We assessed whether preprocedural serum albumin adds prognostic information to the PCI-derived Mehran score for early contrast-associated acute kidney injury (CA-AKI) after elective carotid artery stenting (CAS).

Methods

This single-centre retrospective cohort included 121 consecutive elective patients (January 2020–April 2026). The primary model combined the reconstructed Mehran score with albumin < 3.5 g/dL, a conventional threshold fixed in advance. Because the score uses actual contrast volume, the combined model applies only after CAS. The outcome used KDIGO serum creatinine thresholds (≥0.3 mg/dL or ≥1.5 times baseline) from routine second-day testing. Internal validation used 1000 bootstrap resamples.