In patients with chronic liver disease, the onset of acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) immediately alters the transplant query from ‘if’ to ‘when’. 60–70% of ACLF patients die due to organ failure and poor liver function every three months. A timely liver transplant is the only option to save lives. However, a waiting list for the transplant and several other factors go into deciding the priority.
The small-scale change in transplant priority can lead to the death of a patient. Thus it becomes increasingly important to have accurate ways to estimate mortality risk. While some prognostic models predict mortality risk for ACLF patients, they only account for patients with few comparable characteristics. The significance of predicting mortality threat becomes clear when it is considered that though chronic viral hepatitis and alcohol lead to ACLF, around 40% of instances have no…
