Editorial Comment: The role of nebivolol in the prevention of contrast-induced nephropathy

I read with great interest the manuscript presented by Avcı et al. (1), regarding contrast-induced nephropathy. Renal insufficiency, hypertension along with preexisting diabetes are associated with contrast-induced nephropathy (CIN) and are of paramount importance in understanding how to prevent and mediate the effects of CIN (2). CIN is considered the third most common cause of acute renal failure (hospital acquired) after surgery and hypotension (3). Discovering new treatments such as nebivolol is necessary and warranted to avoid the seven-fold increase in mortality associated with CIN (4). The authors have chosen a timely and essential topic worthy of study. The challenges in this study concern the methodology associated with patient recruitment, timeline of data collection and the statistical analysis. The non-random assignment and unequal sample sizes along with relatively small sample size makes the inferences taken from this study somewhat speculative. Non-random assignment that was based on physician discretion only, may have introduced bias in the selection of patients for the study.