Serum albumin measurement in nephrology: room for improvement

Abstract

Serum albumin is a widely used biomarker in clinical nephrology. Serum albumin cut-off values are used to define disease, to predict outcome and to guide patient care. The available commercial assays to measure serum albumin rely on different analytical principles, all with their own (analytical) specifications. This article provides an overview of the different clinical applications of serum albumin measurements in nephrology, the (dis)advantages of the available assays and the estimates of the effects of the measurement uncertainty between different assays in clinical decision making. This article concludes that harmonization of serum albumin assay results is needed.

Keywords: clinical decision making; clinical laboratory techniques; measurement uncertainty; nephrology; serum albumin.