Monday April 13, 2009
Meld Score: What is it?


It is a model for End-Stage Liver Disease, initially designed and validated for predicting survival in patients with portal hypertension undergoing TIPS (transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt).

Three things used in calculating the predicting models are

1. INR (international normalized ratio)
2. Serum creatinine
3. Serum Bilirubin

It is calculated as

MELD=9.57 x loge (creatinine) + 3.78 loge (total bilirubin) + 11.2 Loge (INR) =6.43

It has played an important role in predicting the mortality in liver disease, and has significantly decreased the liver transplantation time. Patient with Meld score of less than 16 has good survival, and score of more than 24 has poor survival. It also removes favoritism and subjective bias out of transplant preference.


Reference: click to get abstract

Kamath PS, Kim WR. The model for end stage liver disease (MELD). Hepatology 2007; 45(3): 797-805