ALB and diabetes mellitus: The ER group also demonstrated a reduced 90-day mortality rate relative to that of the LR group after adjustment for age, gender, DM, HTN, cardiovascular disease, malignancy, type of vascular access at the time of the first dialysis, WBC, albumin, and Cr (HR = 0.422, P = 0.012) However, after 90 days, the referral pattern was not associated with the mortality rates (Table 3).