Hypoalbuminemic malnutrition

Abstract

Fifty years ago, we originally used anthropometric measures of weight/height and upper arm anthropometry and serum albumin levels to define and document the high prevalence of protein energy malnutrition in adult surgical patients in a municipal hospital in Boston 1 based on my experience with similar practices in pediatric patients in Haiti during an elective rotation in a philanthropic hospital during my medical training. This was soon followed by a similar survey repeated at several weekly intervals in adult medical patients also demonstrating high prevalence of protein energy malnutrition and little change over time, but with less hypoalbuminemia and lower weight/height in the medical patients. 2 In both surgical and medical surveys, arm muscle circumference was significantly associated with serum albumin levels. 1,2 This seemed to conform with two types of pediatric protein energy malnutrition I had first seen in Haiti, marasmus, defined