Albumin infusion in hospitalized patients with acute heart failure: a retrospective cohort study

Heart failure is frequently associated with hypoalbuminaemia and poor prognosis. Acute heart failure (AHF) patients are commonly treated with intravenous albumin to improve osmotic pressure and haemodynamics. However, the effects of exogenous albumin supplementation on the fatality rate of AHF patients have not yet been demonstrated. Therefore, the present study strived to examine the impacts of albumin injections on the mortality rate of patients with AHF.

This retrospective cohort study evaluated the clinical outcomes of all consecutive hospitalized patients. Data were collected from medical records. The primary end-point was a composite of intubation, emergency renal replacement, or mortality in a time-to-event analysis. An inverse probability-weighted multivariable Cox model was used to compare outcomes between patients who were treated with albumin and those who were not based on the propensity score.

Among the 1420 consecutive patients hospitalized in our hospital with acute decompensated heart failure between 1 January 2017 and 27 February 2021, 382 were excluded, 337 (32.5%) were administered albumin (median treatment dose of 29.0 g), and 701 (67.5%) were not. The albumin exposure varied by body mass index, age group, previous diagnoses, clinical signs and symptoms, laboratory tests, and use of other drugs in the unmatched sample. The patients receiving albumin exhibited a lower serum albumin level at baseline in contrast with those who were not treated with albumin (median, 37.3 g/L vs. 31.7 g/L, respectively). Overall, primary end-point events occurred in 357 patients (34.4%) (79 died without being intubated or during an emergency renal replacement therapy, 118 were intubated and 160 had an emergency renal replacement therapy). In the inverse probability weighted multivariable analysis based on the propensity score, albumin use was not significantly associated with the composite primary end-point (hazard ratio, 1.05; 95% confidence interval, 0.75-1.47).

In this observational study of AHF patients hospitalized in our hospital, the administration of albumin did not show a relationship with either a greatly reduced or aggregated risk of the composite end-point of intubation, emergency renal replacement therapy, or death. Therefore, randomized controlled trials of albumin administration are needed for patients with AHF.