Serum Albumin Level in Stroke and Its Correlation With Clinical Outcome

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Serum albumin has been correlated with stroke outcome in previous studies and has shown that elevated levels of serum albumin has better outcome in stroke patients. But many of these studies has been done on acute ischemic stroke and evidence are scarce in hemorrhagic stroke. This study was done to assess albumin level in both ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke patients at tertiary care centered in north India. MATERIALS & METHODS: One hundred and fty patients with acute stroke were included in the study. All participants were evaluated by history, examination, laboratory and radiological modalities. Blood samples for assessment of albumin was collected at the time of admission. Stroke severity was assessed using NIHSS and GCS at the time of admission. Functional outcome was measured 1 week post admission and after 3 months using modied Rankin scale (mRs). Statistical analysis and interpretation of the data was done by using SPSS Software version 23. RESULT: A total of 150 patients with 94 patients Ischemic stroke and 56 patients with Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) were included in this study. Mean (SD) age was 64.12 (10.85). Among the study population, 102 (68.0%) were male and 48 (32.0%) were female. Hypertension was present in 68.0% of the patients and 50.0% of the patients were diabetic The mean S. Albumin (g/dL) was 3.63 (0.72). There was moderate negative correlation between serum albumin level and mRS score in both hemorrhagic and ischemic stroke at 1 week (rho = -0.48, p = <0.001). At three months there was no correlation in both ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke patients (rho = -0.12, p = 0.287). CONCLUSION: Patients with low serum albumin level had poor outcome at one week but did not show signicant impact on outcome at 3 month in both Ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke.