Albumin is one of the many proteins in everyone’s blood. Measuring albumin concentration has long been used to find out the nutritional status of dialysis patients. National Kidney Foundation’s Kidney Disease Outcomes Quality Initiative (KDOQI) recommends the standard use of this measurement practice.
Specifically, KDOQI recommends patients maintaining an albumin concentration of:
- 4.0 gm/dL for the bromocresol green (BCG) testing assay
- 3.7 gm/dL for the bromocresol purple (BCP) testing assay
Additional facts about albumin concentrations include:
- The lower a patient’s albumin concentration falls below the KDOQUI recommended numbers, the more likely it is that the patient:
- Has greater chances of not feeling well, getting infections, or being hospitalized.
- Needs to change diet, probably increasing intake of particular proteins or sugars.
- Inflammation and infection can make albumin results difficult to interpret.
- In the dialysis field, further increases in albumin concentrations are an important goal in helping patients improve their nutritional well-being.