Impact of Albumin Assays in the Diagnosis of Malnutrition in Hemodialysis Patients: A Cohort Study.
Language
EN
Article de revue
This item was published in
Journal of Renal Nutrition. 2022-10-19
English Abstract
In hemodialysis (HD) patients, malnutrition should be diagnosed by several assessment tools including a plasma albumin concentration of less than 3.8 g/dL or 3.5 g/dL using bromocresol green or immunonephelometry (IN), ...Read more >
In hemodialysis (HD) patients, malnutrition should be diagnosed by several assessment tools including a plasma albumin concentration of less than 3.8 g/dL or 3.5 g/dL using bromocresol green or immunonephelometry (IN), respectively. However, albumin measurement is not yet standardized and two alternative methods are also commonly used in laboratories: bromocresol purple (BCP) and immunoturbidimetry (IT). This study aimed to revisit the hypoalbuminemia thresholds for BCP and IT, in HD patients. Plasma albumin was measured by the four analytical methods during the monthly HD nutritional assessment of 103 prospectively included patients. Significant differences in albumin levels were observed in HD patients depending on the method used. Using BCP or IT with the cut-off at 3.5 g/dL (determined for the general population) we obtained 33% and 9.7% of false hypoalbuminemia in comparison to IN (mean bias of -0.4 g/dL and -0.065 g/dL, respectively). The best hypoalbuminemia threshold for BCP was 3.05 g/dL and 3.4 g/dL for IT. Twenty percent of HD patients were classified as malnourished when albumin was determined by IN. Similar rates were obtained using the new hypoalbuminemia cut-offs for BCP (18.5%) and IT (19.5%). To avoid nutritional misclassification of HD patients, we should adjust hypoalbuminemia thresholds when BCP or IT methods are used in laboratories.Read less <
English Keywords
Albumin; analytical method; cut-off; hemodialysis; malnutrition