The Albumin-nutrition connection: separating myth from fact 1 1Editor: Eva P. Shronts, MMSc RP

Exposure to Total and Protein-Unbound Rifampin Is Not Affected by Malnutrition in Indonesian Tuberculosis Patients

“…This indicates that the nutritional status of patients in our study may be better, suggesting that any effect of malnutrition mediated through altered binding to albumin was less likely to occur in our patient population. In contrast, it can also be argued that serum albumin is a suboptimal indicator of nutritional status, especially in marasmic populations, as albumin synthesis can be maintained in such states (32,33).…”

Which Reported Estimate of the Prevalence of Malnutrition After Stroke Is Valid?

“…Furthermore, nonnutritional metabolic sequelae after stroke can mimic signs of malnutrition, hampering the process of detection. 6 The term "malnutrition" is used to describe a host of nutritional abnormalities, although, typically, it refers to protein-energy malnutrition resulting from a longstanding negative imbalance of both energy and protein, whereby metabolic requirements chronically exceed actual nutritional intake. Although many forms of nutritional assessment are in use, few are known to be valid and reliable.…”

Preoperative malnutrition and prognosis after neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by subsequent esophagectomy

“…Albumin concentration and TLC may not accurately reflect nutritional status, as these parameters are affected by other factors, including systemic inflammation, liver function, changes in body fluid volume, and preoperative treatment, resulting albumin concentration and TLC having low sensitivity and specificity for assessing changes in nutritional status (21). Nutritional status can be reliably determined by nutritional risk screening (22) or by subjective global assessment in cancer patients (23), indices that focus on health history and physical examination and eliminate the ambiguity of non-specific, relatively insensitive laboratory values.…”