Serum Albumin as Predictor of Nutritional Status in Patients with ESRD

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Serum albumin is a widely used biomarker of nutritional status in patients with CKD; however, its usefulness is debated. This study investigated serum albumin and its correlation with several markers of nutritional status in incident and prevalent dialysis patients. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS: In a cross sectional study, serum albumin (bromocresol purple), and other biochemical (serum creatinine), clinical (subjective global assessment [SGA]), anthropometric (handgrip strength, skinfold thicknesses), and densitometric (dual energy x-ray absorptiometry) markers of nutritional status were assessed in 458 incident (61% male; mean age 54 +/- 13 years; GFR, 6.6 +/-2.3 ml/min per 1.73 m(2); recruited 1994–2010) and 383 prevalent (56% male; mean age 62 +/- 14 years; recruited 1989–2004) dialysis patients. RESULTS: In incident patients: serum albumin was correlated with sex (beta = -0.13; P = 0.02), diabetes mellitus (beta = -0.18; P = 0.004), and urinary albumin excretion (beta = -0.42; P = 0.001) but less so with poor nutritional status (SGA score >1; beta = -0.19; P = 0.001). In prevalent patients, serum albumin was correlated with age (beta = -0.14; P = 0.05), high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (beta = -0.34; P = 0.001), diabetes mellitus (beta = -0.11; P = 0.04), and SGA score >1 (beta = -0.14; P = 0.003). In predicting nutritional status assessed by SGA and other markers, adding serum albumin to models that included age, sex, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease did not significantly increase explanatory power. CONCLUSIONS: In incident and prevalent dialysis patients,serum albumin correlates poorly with several markers of nutritional status. Thus, its value as a reliable marker of nutritional status in patients with ESRD is limited. In addition, the following inconsistencies between the main text and Tables 1 and 3 are also corrected as follows. (1) In Table 1, the GFR initially written as 6 +/- 3 ml/min per 1.73(2) should be corrected to 6.6 +/- 2.3 ml/min per 1.73(2). (2) On line 11 of page 1448, under the Clinical Correlates of Serum Albumin Concentration section describing the multiple regression models (Table 3), the P value was initially written as“serum albumin was associated with age (beta = -0.14; P = 0.05).” The P value should be corrected to have the same value as that given in Table 3 (beta = -0.14; P = 0.005. [corrected].