Use of Serum Albumin Level as a Predictive Marker of Clinical Outcomes for Active Tuberculosis.

OBJECTIVE: The study objective was to determine whether there is an association between changes in tuberculosis (TB) patient serum albumin levels during anti-TB treatment and subsequent treatment outcomes. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective study to reveal associations between dynamic changes in TB patient serum albumin levels and stratified clinical outcomes. RESULTS: For TB patients with good treatment outcomes, serum albumin concentrations at treatment initiation and during treatment at 1 month (35.7±5.0 g/L), at 2 months (38.1±4.4 g/L) and at treatment completion (43.2±4.9 g/L) were significantly greater than baseline level (30.9±3.7 g/L, P<0.01). Conversely, for patients with poor treatment outcomes, serum albumin concentrations showed no significant treatment-associated change relative to the baseline level (P>0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Our data demonstrates that serum albumin level changes during early anti-TB treatment are useful indicators for identifying TB patients at high-risk for treatment failure.