Prognostic Role of MELD-Lactate in Cirrhotic Patients' Short- and Long-Term Prognosis, Stratified by Causes of Cirrhosis

OBJECTIVES: Recently, model for end-stage liver disease-lactate (MELD-LA) proved to be a superior predicting factor of inpatient mortality in patients with chronic liver disease. The study's objective was to evaluate the ability of MELD-LA to predict both short- and long-term mortality in critically ill cirrhotic patients stratified by causes of cirrhosis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a retrospective observational research of 469 cirrhotic patients entering intensive care unit. Clinical parameters and prognostic scores were measured and collected in the first 24 hours after entering intensive care unit. Follow-up duration was at least 5 years. Independent relationship between MELD-LA and mortality was evaluated by multivariate logistic regression analyses. Discrimination of scoring system was evaluated by the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve. Calibration of the score was evaluated by Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness of fit test for significance. RESULTS: The MELD-LA score (odds ratio: 1.179, 95% confidence interval: 1.112–1.250, P < 0.001) was an independent risk factor for 15-day mortality. The area under the curve of MELD-LA was the highest (0.808, 95% confidence interval: 0.765–0.852) in predicting 15-day mortality and it had superior calibration. We found MELD-LA showed the best discrimination ability in cirrhotic patients caused by both alcohol and hepatitis (0.783, 95% confidence interval: 0.651–0.915) or alcohol alone (0.805, 95% confidence interval: 0.743–0.867). CONCLUSIONS: MELD-LA performs better for predicting short-term prognosis in critically ill cirrhotic patients, especially caused by both alcohol and hepatitis or alcohol alone.