GDF15 and diabetes mellitus: In conclusion and taking into account the limitations of a monocentric study, but supporting findings from previous work in patients undergoing CABG [8, 9], the present analysis shows that preoperative plasma GDF-15 is an independent predictor of postoperative AKI in patients undergoing elective cardiac surgery, and improves the predictive ability of the CC-ARF score as an established renal risk score and of logistic regression models based on the additive Euroscore, age, duration of CPB, and diabetes mellitus.