Abstract

CIEZA, Javier Antonio; CASILLAS, Alessandra; DA FIENO, Angella María  and  BERENICE URTECHO, Scarlet. Association between serum albumin and abnormalities in serum electrolytes, blood gases and nitrogen compounds in adult patients attending an emergency room of a general hospital. Rev Med Hered [online]. 2016, vol.27, n.4, pp.223-229. ISSN 1018-130X.  http://dx.doi.org/10.20453/rmh.v27i4.2991.

Objectives: To evaluate the association between serum albumin and abnormalities in serum electrolytes, blood gases and nitrogen compounds in adult patients attending an emergency room of a general hospital. Methods: 275 patients who attended the emergency room of Hospital Cayetano Heredia en Lima, Peru between 2013 and 2015 were included in the study. Serum albumin (ordinal values) was contrasted with serum electrolytes, blood gases, urea, and serum calcium and phosphorus. Normal albumin (>3.5 g/dl) and low albumin (<2.5 g/dl) were contrasted with the above-mentioned variables using bivariate analysis, and numeric values of these variables were correlated with serum albumin with lineal correlation. Results: Mean age of patients was 57.72 ± 19.11 years; 81.5% had some degree of hypoalbuminemia. Serum albumin correlated only with low serum calcium (p=0.02). In the dichotomous analysis, serum albumin correlated with low serum calcium (p=0.019; OR=4.73) and high urea (p=0.032; OR=2.96). Lineal correlation was significant only for the relationship urea/creatinine and hypoalbuminemia (r=-0.14; p=0.019). Conclusions: Abnormalities associated with hypoalbuminemia were hypocalcaemia and uremia. The study showed a high frequency of patients with hypoalbuminemia.

Keywords : Hypoalbuminemia; uremia; hypocalcemia.

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