Prediction of all-cause mortality with hypoalbuminemia in patients with heart failure: a meta-analysis.

The prognostic utility of serum albumin level for mortality in heart failure patients has received considerable attention. This meta-analysis sought to examine the prognostic significance of hypoalbuminemia for prediction of all-cause mortality in patients with heart failure. Pubmed and Embase databases were systematically searched up to 10 March 2019 to identify eligible studies. Epidemiological studies reporting a multivariable-adjusted risk estimate of all-cause mortality associated with hypoalbuminemia in acute or chronic heart failure patients were included. Nine studies from 10 articles involving 16,763 heart failure patients were included in the final analysis. Hypoalbuminemia was associated with an increased in-hospital mortality (risk ratio [RR] 4.90; 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.96-8.10) and long-term all-cause mortality (RR 1.75; 95% CI 1.35-2.27) in acute heart failure patients. Chronic heart failure patients with hypoalbuminemia exhibited a 3.5-fold (95% CI 1.29-9.73) higher risk for long-term all-cause mortality. Hypoalbuminemia is possibly an independent predictor of all-cause mortality in patients with acute or chronic heart failure. However, the current findings should be further confirmed in future prospective studies. Moreover, future well-designed randomized controlled trials would be required to investigate whether correcting hypoalbuminemia in heart failure patients has potential to improve survival outcome.