Contributing factors to the plasma albumin level at diagnosis of hematological malignancy

ABSTRACT

Objectives

Many factors contribute to the plasma albumin (PA) level. We aimed to quantify different factors’ relative contribution to the PA level when diagnosing hematological malignancy (HM).

Methods

The study was a population-based registry study including patients with HM in a Danish region. We applied multivariate linear regression analyses with C-reactive protein (CRP), WHO performance score (WHO-PS), age, sex, comorbidity, and HM type as exposures and the PA level on the day of the HM diagnosis (DX) as the outcome. The relative contribution of each exposure was determined as a percentage of the models’ coefficient of determination (R²).

Results

In total, 2528 patients with HM had PA measured on DX. In the model comprising all exposures, CRP contributed with 65.8% to the R² of 0.389 whereas 3 variables (CRP, WHO-PS, HM type) together contributed with 96.1%. When CRP was excluded from the model, R² declined to 0.215 and the WHO-PS contributed with 96%. Other models, including separate analyses for each HM type, corroborated these results, except in myeloma patients where WHO-PS contributed with 61.1% to the R² of 0.234.

Conclusion

The inflammation biomarker CRP was the main predictor of the PA level on DX. The WHO-PS also contributed to the PA level on DX whereas the remaining factors (HM type, age, sex, and comorbidity) were of much less importance.

KEYWORDS:

• Plasma albumin
• inflammation
• predisposition factors
• variation
• hematological malignancy

Declaration of interest

The authors declare they have no conflict of interest.

Data sharing

According to Danish law, national health data cannot be made publicly available. However, analytical schemes in the form of Stata do-files can be reviewed through reasonable request from the corresponding author.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grants from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. The contents of the paper and the opinions expressed within are those of the authors, and it was the decision of the authors to submit the manuscript for publication. Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.