The meaning of hypoalbuminaemia in clinical practice

Serum albumin (sALB) is routinely determined in blood tests of hospitalized patients. It is still handled as a quick and simple way to determine the nutritional status of patients in surgical wards. This too simplistic approach mistakes a more complex host of physiological derrangements, which are of utmost clinical relevance, associated with hypoalbuminaemia. The purpose of this talk was to call the attention of the audience to these derangements, with a special emphasis on the alterations of body albumin distribution associated with extracellular water expansion.