Which condition can cause increased albumin and globulins?

Study liver anatomy and function with our medical students test. Engage with detailed multiple choice questions, each with hints and explanations. Prepare effectively for your test!

The key idea is how disease processes shift the balance of serum protein fractions, especially albumin versus globulins. In multiple myeloma, malignant plasma cells produce large amounts of a single immunoglobulin (a monoclonal protein). This drives a marked rise in the gamma globulin portion of the serum and increases total protein. Albumin is not the protein being overproduced and is often unchanged or reduced in systemic illness, so the dominant change is a globulin (immunoglobulin) spike. This pattern—high globulins with a relatively lower albumin contribution—is characteristic of multiple myeloma. Other conditions may alter these fractions in different ways (for example, cirrhosis can lower albumin and may raise globulins via polyclonal gammopathy, while malnutrition lowers albumin and pancreatitis doesn’t produce a specific globulin rise).