Background The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of hypoalbuminemia and in-hospital mortality in acute ischemic stroke patients at a tertiary care hospital in Hyderabad. Methodology This was a prospective observational study conducted at the Department of Medicine, Isra University Hospital, Hyderabad, from February 17, 2017 to August 18, 2017. A total of 196 consecutive cases of acute ischemic stroke were included. Hypoalbuminemia was defined as serum albumin of <3.5 mg/dL. In-hospital outcome in terms of survival or death within seven days of admission was assessed and recorded. Data were analyzed using SPSS, version 20.0. (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, US). Chi-square test was applied, and p-value of ≤0.05 was considered significant. Results Out of the 196 acute ischemic stroke cases, 146 (74.5%) were males and 50 (25.5%) were females. The mean age was 49.31 ± 10.46 years. A total of 90 (45.9%) cases had hypoalbuminemia. Out of these 196 cases, 22 (11.2%) expired within seven days of presentation of acute ischemic stroke, and out of these 22 expired cases, 18 (81.8%) had hypoalbuminemia. In-hospital mortality was found to be strongly associated with hypoalbuminemia (p < 0.001). Conclusions Frequency of hypoalbuminemia was significantly higher in ischemic stroke patients and was found to be associated with in-hospital mortality, warranting monitoring at regular intervals, as well as recognizing and treating it early for risk stratification.
Keywords: acute ischemic stroke; hypoalbuminemia; in-hospital mortality.
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