Author(s)

Yun Liu^1*, Lijian Ran^1*, Hongjia Zhang¹, Heling Ren², Xin Jiang², Pinliang Liao^2#, Min Ou^2#

¹Department of Gastroenterology, Southwest Hospital, The First Affiliated Hospital of Army Medical University, Chongqing, China.
²Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Southwest Hospital, The First Affiliated Hospital of Army Medical University, Chongqing, China.

Background & Objectives: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) leads to high morbidity and mortality. Various models have been proposed for predicting the outcome of patients with HCC. We aim to compare the prognostic abilities of Child-Pugh, MELD, MELD-Na, and ALBI scores for predicting in-hospital mortality of HCC. Methods: We enrolled patients diagnosed with liver cirrhosis and HCC from May 2017 through May 2018. We further divided eligible patients into hepatitis B virus (HBV), patients without ascites, and patients with ascites subgroups. Areas under the characteristic curves (AUCs) were analyzed. Results: A total of 495 patients were included in the study. We collected data on patients at admission. A majority of patients were infected with HBV (91.5%). None of them were complicated with hepatic encephalopathy. Only 14.9% of patients presented with ascites. In the whole population, AUCs with 95% confidence interval (CI) of Child-Pugh, ALBI, MELD, and MELD-Na scores in predicting in-hospital mortality were 0.889 (95% CI: 0.858 - 0.915), 0.849 (95% CI: 0.814 - 0.879), 0.669 (95% CI: 0.626 - 0.711), and 0.721 (95% CI: 0.679 - 0.760), respectively. In the patients without ascites subgroup, Child-Pugh showed better discriminatory ability than ALBI score in predicting in-hospital mortality (P = 0.0002), while there were no significant differences among other comparisons. Conclusions: Child-Pugh and ALBI may be useful predictors for predicting in-hospital mortality in whole patients, in patients with HBV infection, and in patients without ascites. In HCC patients with ascites, MELD-Na may be effective for predicting in-hospital mortality.

Hepatocellular Carcinoma, Child-Pugh Score, MELD Score, MELD-Na Score, ALBI Score, In-Hospital Mortality

Liu, Y. , Ran, L. , Zhang, H. , Ren, H. , Jiang, X. , Liao, P. and Ou, M. (2023) Comparison of Child-Pugh, MELD, MELD-Na, and ALBI Scores in Predicting In-Hospital Mortality in Patients with HCC. International Journal of Clinical Medicine, 14, 148-162. doi: 10.4236/ijcm.2023.143011.