• Mahmoud El Iskandarani, Bara El Kurdi, Ghulam Murtaza, Timir K Paul, and Marwan M Refaat.
• Internal Medicine Department.
• Medicine (Baltimore). 2021 Mar 12; 100 (10): e24785e24785.

BackgroundHypoalbuminemia (HA) is common in HF, however, its pathophysiology and clinical implications are poorly understood. While multiple studies have been published in the past decade investigating the role of serum albumin in HF, there is still no consensus on the prognostic value of this widely available measure. The objective of this study is to assess the prognostic role of albumin in heart failure (HF) patient.MethodsUnrestricted searches of MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane databases were performed. The results were screened for relevance and eligibility criteria. Relevant data were extracted and analyzed using Comprehensive Meta-Analysis software. The Begg and Mazumdar rank correlation test was utilized to evaluate for publication bias.ResultsA total of 48 studies examining 44,048 patients with HF were analyzed. HA was found in 32% (95% confidence interval [CI] 28.4%-37.4%) HF patients with marked heterogeneity (I2 = 98%). In 10 studies evaluating acute HF, in-hospital mortality was almost 4 times more likely in HA with an odds ratios (OR) of 3.77 (95% CI 1.96-7.23). HA was also associated with a significant increase in long-term mortality (OR: 1.5; 95% CI: 1.36-1.64) especially at 1-year post-discharge (OR: 2.44; 95% CI: 2.05-2.91; I2 = 11%). Pooled area under the curve (AUC 0.73; 95% CI 0.67-0.78) was comparable to serum brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) in predicting mortality in HF patients.ConclusionOur results suggest that HA is associated with significantly higher in-hospital mortality as well as long-term mortality with a predictive accuracy comparable to that reported for serum BNP. These findings suggest that serum albumin may be useful in determining high-risk patients.Copyright © 2021 the Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.

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