Albumin is an acute phase reactant that is known to be influenced by many factors
including the presence of an underlying inflammatory process. Inflammation was shown
to reduce albumin levels irrespective of the patient's nutritional state [
[1]
], and albumin has thus been considered a negative acute-phase reactant. Among the
reasons for reduced albumin levels during acute and chronic inflammatory states is
the increased albumin degradation from the high catabolic rate, in addition to its
transudation to the extravascular space from increased capillary permeability (e.g.
during sepsis) [
[2]
]. Hypoalbuminemia is associated with increased length of hospital stay and complications
[
2
,
3
,
4
]. A large prospective study in patients evaluated at the emergency department showed
that the short-term mortality was three times as higher in patients with hypoalbuminemia
compared with cases with normal albumin level after adjusting for confounders [
[2]
].Keywords
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http://apps.who.int/classifications/icd10/browse/2016/en#/X. Accessed 11/9/2015.
Article info
Publication history
Published online: April 24, 2018
Accepted:
April 19,
2018
Received:
April 17,
2018
Identification
Copyright
Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of European Federation of Internal Medicine.
