Effect of Albumin Administration in Hypoalbuminemic Hospitalized Patients With Community-acquired Pneumonia.

Effect of Albumin Administration on Outcomes in Hypoalbuminemic Patients Hospitalized With Community-acquired Pneumonia (ALBUCAP): a Prospective, Randomized, Phase III Clinical Controlled Trial.

Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) remains a leading cause of death world-wide. Hypoalbuminemia is associated with worse outcomes. However, whether albumin administration would have a beneficial effect in outcome in patients with CAP remains uncertain.

This project proposes to test the hypothesis of whether the administration of albumin in hypoalbuminemic patients with CAP would increase the proportion of clinical stable patients at day 5.

This project will consist of a superiority, non-blinded, multicentre, randomized, phase 3, interventional controlled clinical trial. The estimated sample size is of 360 patients, who will be recruited from three Spanish hospitals. Hypoalbuminemic (≤30g/L) adult patients with CAP will be randomly assigned (1:1) to receive standard care plus albumin (20g in 100ml) every 12 hours for 4 days or standard care alone.

The primary endpoint will be the proportion of clinical stable patients at day 5, defined as stable vital signs for at least 24h, analyzed by intention to treat.

The secondary endpoints will be time to clinical stability; duration of intravenous and total antibiotic treatment; length of hospital stay; intensive care unit admission; duration of mechanical ventilation and vasopressor treatment; adverse events; readmission within 30 days and all-cause mortality.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Age ≥ 18 years.
• Diagnosis of CAP (Chest radiography consistent with CAP AND the presence of ≥2 following prespecified clinical criteria: Fever or hypothermia; Cough; Purulent sputum; High white blood cell count; Dyspnea; Pleuritic chest pain; Signs consistent with pneumonia on chest auscultation)
• Serum albumin concentration ≤ 30 g/L at presentation

Exclusion Criteria:

• Pregnancy or lactation
• Immunosuppression (e.g. chemotherapy or radiotherapy within 90 days, immunosuppressive drugs, corticosteroids at a minimum dose of 15mg/day of prednisone within 2 weeks of enrolment, HIV with a CD4 count below 200, solid organ transplant recipients, hematopoietic cell transplant recipients).
• Severe clinical status with expected survival of less than 24h.
• Congestive heart failure (New York Heart Association classes 3 or 4)
• Any contraindication for albumin administration such as hypersensitivity to albumin.
• Clinical conditions in which there is another indication for albumin administration (e.g. hepatic cirrhosis with ascites, malabsorption syndrome and nephrotic syndrome).
• Absence or impossibility of obtaining informed consent from the patient/next of kin.
• Patient already included in another clinical trial testing a treatment method.