Besides aging and the nutritional status of the individual, other factors may interfere in the absolute value of this parameter, such as liver diseases, congestive heart failure, nephrotic syndrome, enteropathies with loss of proteins, severe inflammatory process, liver failure, etc. Still, it is important to point out that the principal factor of low sensitivity of the albumin in the diagnosis of the acute phase of protein energy malnutrition, could be its relatively long biological half-life (± 20 days), and weeks may go by for a response to the variations in protein intake in diet(28). This evidence concerns the gene ALB and congestive heart failure.