Employing logistic regression modeling of variables with an established (age, gender, additive Euroscore, serum creatinine, duration of CPB, duration of surgery, type of surgery, total circulatory arrest, preoperative hemoglobin, and diabetes mellitus) or putative (ScO2, hemofiltration during ECC, plasma GDF-15, hsTNT, and NTproBNP) role as risk factors for CSA-AKI, we observed that GDF-15 is an independent predictor of CSA-AKI and confirmed this finding using multiple statistical methods. The gene discussed is GDF15; the disease is acute kidney injury.