Table 5.

Laboratory values to detect malnutrition and monitor nutritional status [41].

Laboratory Value	Nutrition Independent Factors	Half-Life	Appropriateness to Detect Malnutrition	Appropriateness to Monitor Nutritional Therapy
Albumin	↑ dehydration	20 d	+/++	Not appropriate due to high suggestibility and long half-life
	↓ inflammation, infections, trauma, heart failure, edema, liver dysfunction, nephrotic syndrome
			Not appropriate in case of anorexia and acute illness
Transferrin	↑ renal failure, iron status, acute hepatitis, hypoxia	10 d	+	+
	↓ inflammation, chronic infections hemochromatosis, nephrotic syndrome, liver dysfunction		Low sensitivity and specificity	Concentration is independent of the energy and protein intake
Prealbumin/Transthyretin (TTR)	↑ renal dysfunction, dehydration, corticosteroid therapy	2 d	++	++/+++
			Not appropriate to detect anorexia Subnormal values within one week in case of fasting
				One of the most appropriate proteins
	↓ inflammation, hyperthyreosis, liver disease, overhydration
Retinol binding protein (RBP)	↑ kidney failure, alcohol abuse	12 h	Idem prealbumin	Idem prealbumin
	↓ hyperthyreosis, chronic liver diseases, vitamin A deficiency, selenium deficiency
Insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1)	↑ kidney failure	24 h	++	+++
				More specific than retinol-binding protein and prealbumin/transthyretin
	↓ liver diseases, severe catabolic status, age		Rapid decrease in fasting periods
Urinary creatinine	↑ collection time >24h, infection, trauma	-	1 mmol of creatinine is derived from 1.9 kg of skeletal muscle mass	Not appropriate, very slow
	↓ insufficient collection time, acute kidney failure
Lymphocytes	↑ healing phase after infection, hematologic diseases	-	+	Not appropriate, very slow
	↓ sepsis, hematologic disease, immune suppressants, steroids		Very unspecific