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COMPREHENSIVE METABOLIC PANEL (CMP)
Also printed as: ALB · Serum albumin
Educational only — not medical advice.
Albumin is the most abundant protein in your blood, made by your liver. It keeps fluid inside your blood vessels and acts as a taxi for hormones, calcium, and many medications. Its level reflects liver production, nutrition, hydration, and inflammation together.
Albumin is a quiet context marker. It changes how you read calcium, it moves with inflammation, and it is one of the numbers clinicians use to sanity-check the rest of the panel.
TYPICAL ADULT RANGE
Many labs report roughly 3.5–5.0 g/dL for adults. Ranges vary by lab and drift down modestly with age. Reported in g/dL.
Reference ranges vary by lab, by method, and by age and sex. Always read your own result against the range printed on your report.
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Mildly low albumin is common and often temporary. Any recent inflammation or infection lowers it, as does being well hydrated at the draw, pregnancy, and periods of lower protein intake. Because it also reflects liver production and kidney handling, a persistently low albumin is something your doctor will look at with your liver enzymes and a urine protein test rather than in isolation.
High albumin is usually a concentration effect rather than a real increase — dehydration on the day of the draw, or a tourniquet left on a little long, is the typical explanation. Because of that, it is rarely a finding in its own right. If it shows up repeatedly, mention it and your doctor can check whether hydration or collection is the story.
Your doctor is the one who can read this number against your history, symptoms, and medications.
Educational only — not medical advice. Lab results only mean something alongside your history, symptoms, medications, and the rest of your panel. Bring questions to your doctor; they are the one who can interpret your results for you.
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