What is serum albumin primarily used to assess in patients?

Serum albumin is primarily used to assess nutritional status in patients. Albumin is a protein made by the liver, and its levels in the blood can provide important information about a person's health, particularly in relation to their nutritional state. Low levels of serum albumin can indicate malnutrition, liver disease, or chronic illness and can also be a sign of inflammatory states, which may impact dietary intake and absorption.

While serum albumin can have implications for liver function since it is synthesized in the liver, its primary role is not as a direct assessment of liver function you would derive from other liver enzymes or tests. Similarly, serum albumin is not specifically a marker for kidney function, even though it can be affected by kidney disease because of altered protein metabolism and loss of protein in the urine. It is also not a direct indicator of cardiac output; cardiac output is typically assessed through various hemodynamic measurements, not by serum albumin levels. In summary, the most relevant and direct use of serum albumin is in evaluating nutritional status.