Automated Albumin Method Underestimates Pharma- ceutical-Grade Albumin in Vivo, Ole P. Børmer,1 * Lise

Modern transfusion medicine relies on the use of compo-nents separated from whole blood. For volume substitu-tion, albumin that has been purified from donor plasma and heat treated to reduce possible infectivity is the routine product. Such albumin for infusion is expensive compared with the synthetic or semisynthetic alterna-tives; therefore, it should be used only when strictly indicated, and its use should be guided by the patient’s serum albumin concentration. This requires the purified albumin to be measured correctly by the assay method used. When we checked the accuracy of the Vitros “dry chemistry ” bromcresol green (BCG) albumin method (Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics), the albumin assay used at our hospital, by analyzing our routine blood bank albu-min solution (Octapharma), we found only 70 % of th