Table 2.

Characteristics of serum visceral proteins used as nutritional markers.

Protein	Molecular Weight	Half-Life	Reference Range
Albumin	65,000	20 days	3.30 to 4.80 g per dL
Transferrin	76,000	10 days	0.16 to 0.36 g per dL
Prealbumin	54,980	2 days	16 to 35 mg per dL
Retinol-binding protein	21,000	½ day	3–6 mg/dL

Table adapted from Spiekerman AM [33].