The patient is dying
Wesley C. Finegan, Angela McGurk, Wilma O’Donnell, Jan Pederson, Elizabeth Rogerson in Care of the Cancer Patient, 2018
Many families will have some prior experience of death either as individuals or as a group. These experiences may colour their expectations and prompt specific anxieties and fears depending on whether they have good or bad memories of the previous death. The family may be seeking advice, comfort, company and regular visits for reassurance, or they may wish to be alone during those last few days or hours. The patient approaches death, he or she is making an unfamiliar journey. The family often has no clear idea of what may happen or what role to play. The appropriate prognostic indicators such as rising urea and creatinine levels and low serum albumin levels should be monitored if necessary and appropriate, but it is inappropriate to carry out investigations if no action will be taken. When the team is agreed that death is inevitable, the end-of-life care package that is normally used by the team should be implemented.
How to Validate Histochemical Techniques as Predictors of Hormonal Response
P. Pertschuk Louis, Lee Sin Hang in Localization of Putative Steroid Receptors, 2018
There is controversy as to the validity of histochemical techniques to localize estrogen receptors (ER) in human breast cancer. Using an estrogen bovine serum albumin fluorescein iso-thiocyanate (BSA FITC) complex, several groups have attempted to evaluate the presence of steroid receptors at the cellular level in frozen sections or in cell suspensions of human breast cancer. The results of comparing histochemical and biochemical assays in group 1 and 2 indicate that a tumor which will be labeled as positive or negative for estrogen binding by the histochemical technique will be similarly called by the biochemical assay. Problems in evaluating the results of the histochemical technique come from the fact that there is no established cutoff point to distinguish between negative and positive tumors using the percentage of positive cells and the intensity of fluorescence. This also hampers the correlation between the histochemical and biochemical techniques.
Serum Albumin Binding of Natural Substances and Its Influence on the Biological Activity of Endogenous and Synthetic Ligands for G-Protein-Coupled Receptors
Catherina Caballero-George in Natural Products and Cardiovascular Health, 2018
This chapter deals with the serum albumin binding to polyphenols. It discusses the ability of serum albumin to modulate the binding of endogenous and synthetic ligands to G-protein-coupled receptors. Serum albumin is one of the most abundant blood plasma proteins and is produced in the liver. Apart from its role in maintenance of oncotic pressure, it serves as a carrier for many endogenous molecules, including steroid hormones, hemin and fatty acids. Catechins, which are the major polyphenolic compounds in green tea, are found to bind to human and bovine serum albumin. The flavonoids display higher affinity for human serum albumin when compared to bovine serum albumin (BSA), and the galloyl moiety increases the binding affinity. The chapter discusses the consequences of the interaction between BSA and angiotensins. It is well known that serum albumin is one of the most abundant proteins present in blood plasma and that it serves as storage and transporter for both endogenously and exogenously administrated compounds.
Effect of Infliximab in oxidised serum albumin levels during experimental colitis
Published in Biomarkers, 2014
David Cano-Martínez, Irene D. Román, M. Val T. Lobo, Oscar Pastor, Irene Moreno-Villena, Alberto Paradela, Borja Hernández-Breijo, Ma Dolores Fernández-Moreno, Jorge Monserrat, Patricia Sanmartín-Salinas, Javier P. Gisbert, Luis G. Guijarro
Infliximab (IFX) is widely used in ulcerative colitis and in Crohn’s disease treatment. Both diseases are characterised by increased oxidative stress, which may affect albumin oxidation. In order to test this hypothesis, the effect of IFX on colitis induced by dextran sulphate sodium (DSS) in rats was evaluated by measuring the Disease Activity Index, biochemical parameters, serum albumin oxidation and colonic mucosa oxidation. Rats with colitis showed an increase in oxidised serum albumin levels and in the oxidation of colon mucous cells. Both decreased after IFX treatment. This suggests that oxidised albumin could be a useful biomarker for monitoring inflammatory bowel disease.
Serum albumin level and long-term outcome in acute heart failure
Published in Acta Cardiologica, 2019
Arnaud Ancion, Sophie Allepaerts, Sébastien Robinet, Cecile Oury, Luc A. Pierard, Patrizio Lancellotti
Objective: Hypoalbuminemia is common in heart failure (HF), especially in elderly patients. It is associated with an increased risk of death. The present study sought to examine the prognostic significance of serum albumin level in the prediction of long-term mortality in patients admitted for acute HF. Methods and results: We examined the association between albumin and hospital mortality in a cohort of 509 patients admitted for acute HF. None of the patients had infectious disease, severe arrhythmias (atrial fibrillation, ventricular tachycardia, ventricular fibrillation), required invasive ventilation or presented with acute coronary syndrome or primary valvular disease. Sixty-nine patients (14%) died during the 1-year follow-up. With multivariable analysis, haemoglobin level (p = .003), systolic blood pressure (p = .004) and serum albumin level (p = .003) emerged as independent predictors of long-term mortality. Hypoalbuminemia (
Inverse association between serum albumin and depressive symptoms among drug-free individuals with a recent suicide attempt
Published in Nordic Journal of Psychiatry, 2019
Background and aim: Albumin is a protein with multifaceted functions in the human body. According to many studies, lower serum albumin may be associated with depression in various groups of psychiatric and non-psychiatric patients, as well as with attempted suicide. As more severe depressive symptoms have been identified as a reliable risk factor for suicide in patients with high suicide risk, it would be of interest to study whether, the inverse association between depressive symptoms and albumin may exist among patients with attempted suicide. Therefore, the aim of the study was to investigate the possible association between albumin and depressive symptoms among individuals who recently attempted suicide. Methods: One-hundred twenty-seven individuals with a recent suicide attempt were involved in the study between 1987 and 2001. Albumin was analyzed in serum. Patients were evaluated with the Comprehensive Psychopathological Rating Scale (CPRS) from which the Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) and the item assessing Apparent sadness were derived. Results: Only among patients aged ≥45, serum albumin levels were significantly and negatively correlated with total scores of MADRS and the item Apparent sadness (all p values
Related Knowledge Centers
- Blood Proteins
- Hyperglycemia
- Liver
- Bilirubin
- Maillard Reaction
- Blood Coagulation Factors
- Xenobitoics