Concentration and properties of albumin in the serum and peritoneal exudate in patients with peritonitis

: A new fluorescent method was used to study albumin concentration and properties in blood serum and peritoneal exudate of patients with peritonitis of different origin excluding pancreatogenic one. Total albumin concentration (TA), effective albumin concentration (EA) dependent on both TA and properties of binding sites in albumin molecules, and their ratio EA/TA dependent only on the site properties were measured. Peritonitis led to significant decrease of TA, EA and their ratio EA/TA. Thus, leak of blood albumin was accompanied by some change of albumin binding site structure. As a rule, albumin of peritoneal exudate was changed in the same extent of blood albumin, i.e. the albumin transfer from blood to exudate keeps it's changed structure because the ratio EA/TA correlated well in serum and exudate (r = 0.75) while the ratio was very mach variable both in serum and exudate. The gradient TA exudate/TA serum was found as a linear function of the serum TA with personal correlation coefficients from 0.8 up to 1.0 in 12 of 16 patients studied. The linear equation coefficients reflected character of the peritonitis development in these patients.