Association Between Serum Albumin Levels and Acute Kidney Injury in Patients With Acute Pancreatitis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a particularly major complication among patients with acute pancreatitis, which markedly increases the length of hospitalization, morbidity, and mortality. Low serum albumin levels have been associated with disease severity and worse outcomes in various critical illnesses. Accordingly, this meta-analysis was done to assess the association between serum albumin level and AKI in patients with acute pancreatitis. A systematic review was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. The search was performed in PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus. Pooled standardized mean differences (SMDs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated to investigate the difference in albumin values between AKI and non-AKI patient groups. A total of seven studies, including 3,496 patients with acute pancreatitis, were included in the meta-analysis. The results indicate that patients who developed AKI had substantially lower serum albumin concentrations at baseline compared to those who did not develop AKI, with the pooled SMD being -0.55 (95% CI: -0.64 to -0.47; p < 0.001). Assessment of between-study variability demonstrated no significant heterogeneity, and sensitivity analysis confirmed robustness of the results. This meta-analysis demonstrated that hypoalbuminemia could serve as a reliable biomarker for identifying patients at increased risk of kidney injury during the course of acute pancreatitis.