The results of the non-sepsis patients were similar to those of the overall cohort: Urinary NGAL (DOR 16.3, 95% CI 11.8–22.4) had significantly better diagnostic accuracy for AKI than IL-18 (relative DOR 0.52, 95% CI 0.37–0.72), L-FABP (relative DOR 0.65, 95% CI 0.46–0.93), and TIMP-2 × IGFBP-7: 0.3 (relative DOR 0.36, 95% CI 0.19–0.67) (Additional file 1: Table S1). The gene discussed is TIMP2; the disease is acute kidney injury.