Saturday, September 1, 2012

Reading a Chemistry, Albumin

Albumin is made by the liver and is the most plentiful of the plasma or serum proteins.  As a natural colloid it plays a major role in maintaining vascular volume.

Causes of increased albumin:
-Dehydration: is the only cause of increased albumin.

Causes of decreased albumin:
-Liver issues: if liver function is impaired albumin may not be produced.
-Kidney disease: albumin may be lost by a leaky glomerulus
-Blood loss: even if RBC's are normal.  The spleen sequesters a reserve of red blood cells, but there is no such reserve for albumin, so shortly after a major blood loss albumin will be decreased, but the red blood cell count may not be.

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