Model for End-Stage Liver Disease score for predicting outcome in critically ill medical patients with liver cirrhosis.

PURPOSE: We hypothesized that the Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) score at admission to the intensive care unit (ICU) can predict in-hospital mortality for patients with liver cirrhosis. We also tested the MELD-natremia (Na) score and compared the predictive value of the 2 models.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a retrospective cohort study. A total of 441 consecutive patients with liver cirrhosis admitted to the ICU were included. The MELD and MELD-Na scores and other variables were obtained upon patients' admission to the ICU.

RESULTS: The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve to predict in-hospital mortality was 0.77 (95% confidence interval, 0.73-0.82) for the MELD score and 0.77 (95% confidence interval, 0.73-0.81) for the MELD-Na score.

CONCLUSION: The MELD scoring system provides useful prognostic information for critically ill patients with liver cirrhosis admitted to an ICU. The MELD and MELD-Na scores had similar predictive value.