Prognostic significance of serum albumin stratified by total cholesterol in patients with coronary artery disease: based on a published research

Background: Patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) usually show relatively poor long-term prognosis. Serum albumin level showed negative prediction of poor prognosis of CAD, while cholesterol level was also suggested poor prognosis, but most previous studies on albumin levels and prognosis in patients with CAD have not considered the effect of cholesterol levels on outcomes. Thus, we aim to investigate the prognostic impact of albumin levels under different cholesterol level groups. Methods We analyzed the data of 204 patients from October 2014 to October 2017 for newly diagnosed stable CAD. Albumin and cholesterol were measured at admission. The outcome was major adverse cardiac events (MACE). The median duration of follow-up was 783 days. COX models were performed to evaluate the prognostic significance of serum albumin on MACE. Results Higher serum albumin indicated lower risk of MACE (HR = 0.37, P = 0.0462). In participants whose total cholesterol level less than 200 mg/dL, the risk of MACE was related to lower serum albumin (HR = 0.19, P = 0.0072), but not significantly in the others (HR = 3.16, P = 0.3392). Conclusion In clinical practice, when using serum albumin to evaluate the prognosis of patients with cardiovascular disease, the influence of cholesterol on the evaluation results should be fully considered.