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Model for end-stage liver disease (MELD) and MELD including serum sodium (Na) scores are currently used to predict mortality in patients with cirrhosis. However, MELD does not take all factors into account, such as systemic inflammation. Recently, C-reactive protein (CRP) levels were shown to predict mortality in patients with cirrhosis who were hospitalized with bacterial infections (NEJM JW Gastroenterol Sep 11 2017; [e-pub] and Am J Gastroenterol 2017 Aug 29; [e-pub]). Other inflammatory markers, such as interleukin 6 (IL6) may also be useful.
In a retrospective observational study, researchers in Germany assessed how well IL6, CRP, MELD scores, and white blood cell (WBC) count predicted 90-day mortality in 474 patients with cirrhosis who…