For an elderly client who is experiencing chronic nausea and weight loss,which laboratory result would the nurse recognize as being most consistent with a diagnosis of Imbalanced Nutrition: Less Than Body Requirements?

A) Serum glucose of 78 mg/dL
B) Serum albumin of 3.2 g/dL
C) Creatinine of 1.0 mg/dL
D) Potassium of 4.1 g/dL

Serum albumin is a blood protein and marker for nutritional status.The value should be between 3.5 and 5.0 g/dL.This situation is consistent with undernutrition due to low nutritional intake.As there is no indication that the woman has been vomiting,the potassium level should be within normal limits (3.4 to 4.8 mEq/L).However,if she had been vomiting over a period of days or longer,you would anticipate her to have low potassium,sodium,and other electrolyte levels.Serum glucose is normal (70 to 100 mg/dL)in this scenario.The serum creatinine is within normal limits for women (0.5 to 1.0 mg/dL).