A Meta-analysis: Effect Of Albumin On Ischemic Stroke Outcome

Background and Purpose Evidence from animal experiments showedalbumin(ALB) therapy could increase the ischemic stroke outcome,butthe human clinical study is insufficient and unconvincing. Our meta-anlysisis based on the small prospective trails and aimed at founding the assicationof serum ALB and stroke outcome.Methods We searched PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library forprospective studies examining the effect of serum albumin after the onsetof ischemic stroke on stroke outcome. The serum albumin level should bereported as a dichotomized variable(low versus high),and numerical resultswere given allowing us to calculate the pools OR for poor outcome ordeath.Results25potentially eligible studies were selected,5studies wereultimately included for final meta-analysis. The total number of participantswas1029. The combined OR of4studies for mortality from fixed-effectsmode was4.2(95%CI:2.70-6.55;P<0.00001),a heterogeneity test wasI2=0%(P=0.83); Poor functional results were available from3studies witha pooled OR of3.58(95%CI:2.18-5.87; P<0.00001) from fixed-effect model. No heterogeneity was found with a I2=0%(P=0.98) suggesting thatthe datas were sufficiently similar to be meta-analyzed.Conclusions The meta-analyses indicated that low albumin level wassignificantly associated with worse outcome as indicated by worse clinicaloutcome and higher mortality.