Useful For

• Fluid Albumin: Edema and ascites rarely are the result of decreased plasma albumin levels; usually they are secondary to increased vascular permeability, which permits the loss of albumin into these spaces.  The albumin level in these fluids varies from very low to higher than that in plasma, the latter in particular with certain forms of ascites.  Even with low concentrations, either disorder may be massive enough to contain a substantial portion of the total body albumin.
• Albumin in peritoneal fluid is used to calculate serum-ascites albumin gradient (defined as the serum albumin concentration minus the ascitic fluid albumin concentration) which has been proposed as a physiologically based alternative in the classification of ascites.  The “gradient” has been shown to correlate directly with portal pressure (cirrhosis) such that patients with gradients of 1.1 g/dL or greater have been shown to have portal hypertension (cirrhosis), whereas those with gradients less than 1.1 g/dL do not have the disorder.