Astute Medical, Inc. Sponsors World Kidney Day 2013

- Raising Awareness of Acute Kidney Injury

SAN DIEGO, March 14, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Astute Medical, Inc. today announced that it is an official sponsor of World Kidney Day 2013, a global campaign that aims to raise awareness of kidney health. This year's focus is on acute kidney injury (AKI), a serious condition that can lead to permanent kidney damage or death.

AKI is on the rise worldwide, striking millions of hospitalized patients each year. Increasingly, hospital physicians worldwide are expressing concern about the health risk and cost burden of AKI.

Astute Medical has developed the NephroCheck^® Test for risk assessment of AKI, which utilizes two biomarkers. A recent study [VIEW STUDY] showed these biomarkers to be superior to other methods in identifying patients who have the potential to develop AKI in the near term. The test is now available in Europe.

"With an incidence similar to heart attack and high mortality rates, kidney attack should be considered as severe a medical emergency as heart attack," says Dr. Claudio Ronco, director of the department of nephrology at San Bartolo hospital in Vicenza, Italy. "However, unlike heart attack, AKI is silent, without signs and symptoms that guide risk assessment. If undetected and unchecked, AKI can result in substantial kidney damage that can hinder quality of life, raise the risk of readmission or even result in death."

Dr. Ronco is the author of a recent commentary [VIEW ARTICLE] on AKI in Critical Care.

"Anyone who is critically ill is at risk of developing AKI," said Chris Hibberd, Astute Medical chief executive officer. "Today people are taking more interest in health, and World Kidney Day is an excellent opportunity to educate more people about AKI and steps we are taking to help physicians."

Leading critical care experts will discuss groundbreaking techniques for assessing risk of AKI at an educational symposium being held on Wednesday, March 20, 2013 at 12.30 during the 33rd International Symposium on Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (ISICEM) in Brussels, Belgium. Interested participants can visit AKIAssessment.com to register online. Event participants and others can follow the live event viaTwitter @ACuteKidneyMan.

The NephroCheck® Test and the Astute140™ Meter are not available for sale in the United States.

About AKI
Acute kidney injury is a complex and increasingly prevalent condition associated with high mortality in critically ill patients. Although it occurs quickly (over the course of hours), there is commonly a challenge in risk assessment due to the inadequate tools currently available to physicians. Failure to recognize and manage AKI in the early stages can lead to devastating outcomes for patients and increased costs to the healthcare system. For more information on incidence, costs and other aspects of AKI visit the Astute Medical media room.

About Astute Medical, Inc.
Named by the Wall Street Journal as one of the Top 10 Healthcare Start-Ups of 2012, Astute Medical is dedicated to improving the diagnosis of high-risk medical conditions and diseases through the identification and validation of protein biomarkers that can serve as the basis for novel diagnostic tests. The Company's focus is community- and hospital-acquired acute conditions that require rapid diagnosis and risk assessment. Astute Medical's current areas of interest include abdominal pain, acute coronary syndromes, cerebrovascular injury, kidney injury and sepsis. For additional information, please visit www.astutemedical.com.

The NephroCheck® Test and the Astute140™ Meter are not available for sale in the United States. For information regarding trademarks and other intellectual property applicable to this product, including international trademarks, please see AstuteMedical.com/about/intellectual-property.

PN 0168 Rev A 2013/03/12.