Serum albumin level in spontaneous subarachnoid haemorrhage: More than a mere nutritional marker!

Background: The role of nutritional markers on outcome following subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) has been scarcely described.

Methods: This is a prospective study of 273 patients with SAH, in which haemoglobin, serum protein and albumin were measured within 24 hours and again at one week following ictus, and analysed with respect to other variables. New neurologic deficits (NND), infarct, mortality and Glasgow outcome scale (GOS) at 3 months were assessed.

Results: The values of haemoglobin, total protein and albumin showed significant (p < .001) decline over the first week of SAH. Patients who developed NND had significantly lower serum albumin levels at admission compared to others (median 3.6 vs 3.9 g/dL, p < .001). Patients having lower albumin (≤3.5 gm/dL) levels at admission had significantly higher rates of NND (52% vs 20%), infarct (35% vs 23%), mortality (28% vs 16%) and unfavourable GOS (38% vs 25%). Hunt & Hess (H&H) grade and Fisher grade also affected all the outcome parameters significantly. Percentage decrease in albumin levels at one week following ictus significantly affected mortality and unfavourable GOS. On multivariate analyses, Fisher grade and lower admission albumin levels had significant impact on NND, while percentage decrease in albumin levels had significant impact on mortality and unfavourable GOS, independent of other nutritional markers and known prognostic variables.

Conclusions: Serum albumin levels following SAH can be useful to predict development of NND, while its further weekly decrease correlates independently with unfavourable outcome at 3 months. Albumin assessment being readily available may serve as more than a mere nutritional parameter in SAH.