ALB and infection: Patients with evidence of infection had higher creatinine concentration (148 mg/dL vs 113 mg/dL, p = 0.004), higher white blood cell count (14.5 × 109/L vs 12.5 × 109/L, p = 0.028), lower albumin concentration (2.61 g/dL vs 2.77 g/dL, p = 0.016) and severer disease as assessed by the discriminant function (121 vs 92, p = 0.009).