The cardiac effect of altered calcium homeostasis after albumin resuscitation.

Supplemental albumin added to a standard non-albumin resuscitation regimen has been shown to significantly impair heartwork in seriously injured patients. The role of calcium dynamics in this myocardial depression was analyzed in 94 injured patients who were in shock for an average of 32 minutes, received an average of 14.5 transfusions, 9.2 L crystalloid, 0.9 L plasma, and 20.9 mEq calcium prior to the end of operation. By random selection, 44 patients received an average of 31 gms of albumin during operation, 207 gms during the early postoperative period (mean = 30 hrs) of extravascular fluid sequestration, and 402 gm during the mobilization period. The albumin resuscitated patients had normal total protein and serum albumin levels and higher total calcium (TC) levels, however, they had a significantly lower Ca++ and Ca++/TC. The accumulative slope for heartwork/filling pressure was significantly depressed in albumin patients as was the mean work unit/filling pressure index. The level of Ca++ and the Ca++/TC ratio correlated directly with the calculated work unit index in both the albumin and non-albumin patients. This suggests that a supplemental albumin binds serum Ca++ causing an increase in TC but a reduction in Ca++ and Ca++/TC. The fall in Ca++ and Ca++/TC seems responsible, in part, for heart failure and pulmonary edema in albumin resuscitated patients.