ALB and tuberculosis: Nutritional status is significantly lower in patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis compared with healthy controls in different studies in Indonesia, England, India, and Japan.17 Tuberculosis patients have been found to have lower serum albumin concentration than controls.17 Tuberculosis is probably associated with more severe malnutrition than other chronic illnessess; in an Indian study, the nutritional status of patients with tuberculosis was worse than that of those with leprosy.