Question:medium
A patient has chronic liver disease with cirrhosis. Which of the following criteria is used to assess the prognosis of this liver condition?
A patient has chronic liver disease with cirrhosis. Which of the following criteria is used to assess the prognosis of this liver condition?
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Five variables: bilirubin, albumin, INR, ascites and encephalopathy.
Updated On: Jun 23, 2026
- Child-Pugh score
- Milan score
- MELD score
- Alvarado score
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The Correct Option is A
Solution and Explanation
Option-elimination approach: three of the four scores belong to other diseases, which makes the answer fall out quickly.
Alvarado is purely an appendicitis score, so drop it. Milan criteria are about choosing hepatocellular carcinoma patients for liver transplant, not grading cirrhosis severity, so drop it. MELD is a genuine cirrhosis score, but it is used mainly to rank transplant priority by predicted 3-month mortality. The traditional bedside prognostic classifier for cirrhosis is Child-Pugh.
Remember its components with the mnemonic ABCDE: Albumin, Bilirubin, Coagulation (INR), Distension (ascites) and Encephalopathy. The total places the patient into Class A, B or C, which correlates with one and two year survival and signals when transplantation is needed. The cirrhotic liver in the image is the classic setting for applying this score.
Ref: Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, 20e.
Alvarado is purely an appendicitis score, so drop it. Milan criteria are about choosing hepatocellular carcinoma patients for liver transplant, not grading cirrhosis severity, so drop it. MELD is a genuine cirrhosis score, but it is used mainly to rank transplant priority by predicted 3-month mortality. The traditional bedside prognostic classifier for cirrhosis is Child-Pugh.
Remember its components with the mnemonic ABCDE: Albumin, Bilirubin, Coagulation (INR), Distension (ascites) and Encephalopathy. The total places the patient into Class A, B or C, which correlates with one and two year survival and signals when transplantation is needed. The cirrhotic liver in the image is the classic setting for applying this score.
Ref: Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, 20e.
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