High-density lipoprotein cholesterol improves the model for end-stage liver disease scoring system for prognostic prediction of acute liver failure
Abstract
Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology, 2010; 45: 506â508 LETTER TO THE EDITOR High-density lipoprotein cholesterol improves the model for end-stage liver disease scoring system for prognostic prediction of acute liver failure MASAYUKI MIYAZAKI, MASAKI KATO, MASATAKE TANAKA & RYOICHI TAKAYANAGI Department of Medicine and Bioregulatory Science, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan TO THE EDITOR: Acute liver injury, regardless of its etiology, is generally a transient, self-limiting disease. However, in some patients, liver disease proceeds to acute liver failure (ALF), which can be cured only by liver transplantation. In Japan, because most grafts are from living donors, the indication for transplantation should be evaluated carefully because of the physical burden on the donor. Some researchers have reported the usefulness of the model for endstage liver disease (MELD) scoring system for predicting the prognosis of patients with ALF [1]. However, the high false-positive rate of the MELD score limits its clinical utility, and additional indices have been expected [2]. Reduced serum levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol have been reported in ALF. The absence of alpha-lipoprotein was identiï¬ed as a sensitive indicator of poor prognosis in acute viral hepatitis in 1975 [3]. After the establishment of biochemical