van Beek DEC, et al. - Whether there exists a link between low serum albumin (SA) level and the development of new onset atrial fibrillation (NOAF) during the first 48 h of intensive care unit (ICU) admission, was investigated in this prospective analysis including 97 patients admitted to the ICU. During the first 48 h of ICU admission, NOAF incidence was estimated to be 18%. After correction for confounders, a significant link between SA levels at ICU admission and NOAF was identified. Low levels of SA were found to be related to the occurrence of NOAF in this small hypothesis-generating study. It is yet to be demonstrated whether rising SA levels reduces the incidence of NOAF.