Albumin blood test: normal range explained

Albumin is a protein made by the liver, and it makes up about 60% of the protein in your blood. It keeps the watery part of blood inside your blood vessels, and it carries hormones, vitamins, enzymes, some medicines and minerals such as calcium around the body.

The liver makes roughly 12–15 g of albumin daily, and each molecule lasts about 20 days before it is broken down and replaced.

Doctors use albumin to check general health and nutrition and to see how well the liver and kidneys are working. It is part of liver function tests and the comprehensive metabolic panel, so it often appears at a routine check-up or before surgery.

It may be ordered for symptoms of liver disease, such as jaundice, swelling or dark urine, or of kidney disease, such as foamy urine or swollen legs. Some kidney disease causes no symptoms until later, which is another reason albumin is checked.

Albumin reflects how much water is in your blood as much as how much protein the liver is making.

• Dehydration raises albumin, and a large volume of intravenous fluid or too much water dilutes it.
• Albumin falls during pregnancy because blood volume rises, which Lab Tests Online UK calls a normal consequence of pregnancy.
• Anabolic steroids, androgens, growth hormone and insulin can raise it, and birth control pills can lower it. Do not stop a medicine unless your doctor tells you to.
• A tourniquet left on for a long time during the draw can raise the result, and standing gives a slightly higher value than lying down.
• Going without food for 24 to 48 hours lowers albumin, and long-term poor nutrition or poor absorption lowers it further.
• Liver disease, kidney disease, large burns, serious infection or inflammation and thyroid disease are linked with lower values.