Albumin
The Test
How is it used?
When is it requested?
Doctors may also request blood albumin tests when they want to check a person’s nutritional status, for example, when someone has lost a lot of weight. In this situation prealbumin levels tend to fall earlier than albumin levels.
What does the test result mean?
Low albumin levels can suggest liver disease. Liver enzyme tests are requested to help determine which type of liver disease.
Low albumin levels can reflect diseases in which the kidneys cannot prevent albumin from leaking from the blood into the urine and being lost. In this case, the amount of albumin (or protein) in the urine also may be measured. Low albumin levels can also be seen in severe inflammation, shock and malnutrition.
Low albumin levels may also suggest conditions in which your body does not properly absorb and digest protein such as Crohn’s disease or in which large volumes of protein are lost from the intestine.
High albumin levels usually reflect dehydration although the test is not used for this purpose, dehydration is usually assessed by physical examination.
Is there anything else I should know?
Certain drugs increase albumin in your blood, including anabolic steroids, androgens, growth hormones and insulin.
If you are receiving large amounts of intravenous fluids, the results of this test may be inaccurate.
