Reference intervals for plasma albumin and correlation with plasma proteins

ABSTRACT

This study on 3454 healthy Saudi male and female adults and children was conducted with the aim of establishing the 'reference interval' for plasma albumin and to investigate the effect of age and sex on the normal range. Albumin showed a normal Gaussian distribution and using parametric and non-parametric methods the range in adults was found to be 43.96 +/- 12.2 g/l and 40.6 +/- 12.6g/l in the male and female groups respectively. The male results were significantly higher than the female, except in those >/= 50 years of age and those less than 10 years. This study also showed that the albumin level decreased slightly with age. Furthermore, the correlation between albumin and other plasma proteins showed a positive correlation between albumin and transferrin, IgG and IgA; a negative correlation between albumin and Alpha 1-antitrypsin and no correlation between albumin and IgM and Gc protein