ALB and Hypoalbuminemia: In the present retrospective study, we tried to identify factors associated with serum albumin and identify risk factors for hypoalbuminemia (< 3.8 g/dL) using only demographic and those biochemical measurements that are routinely available in the United States; we were particularly interested in the temporal association between nPCR (normalized protein catabolic rate) as an indicator of protein intake and serum albumin over an extended period of 24 consecutive months.