ALB and cirrhosis of liver: Although the Japanese clinical treatment guidelines for liver cirrhosis recommend that nutritional intervention should be considered in patients with chronic liver disease and a serum albumin level of ≤3.5 g/dL [25,26], earlier nutritional intervention with the inclusion of branched-chain amino acid before the development of hypoalbuminemia (≤3.5 g/dL) should be considered during the clinical course of chronic liver disease.