Hypoalbuminemia as a marker of protein metabolism disarrangement in patients with stable chronic heart failure.

BACKGROUND: Despite therapeutic advances, chronic heart failure (CHF)-related mortality and hospitalization is still unacceptable high. Evidence shows that muscular wasting, sarcopenia, cachexia are independent predictors of mortality and morbidity in CHF and are signs of protein metabolism disarrangement (PMD), which involve all body proteins including circulating one. We postulate that circulating human serum albumin (HAS) could be a marker of PMD and catabolic low-grade inflammation (LGI) in CHF patients. METHODS: 166 stable CHF patients (73% males), with optimized therapy referred to cardiac rehabilitation, were retrospectively divided into three groups based on their HAS concentration: >/=3.5 g/dl (normal value), 3.2-3.49 g/dl (low value);