True about MELD diagnosis score -
High-Yield Explanation
MELD or Model for End-Stage Liver Disease is a chronic liver disease severity scoring system that uses a patient's laboratory values for serum bilirubin, serum creatinine, and the international normalized ratio for prothrombin time (INR) to predict survival. In patients with chronic liver disease, an increasing MELD score is associated with increasing severity of hepatic dysfunction and three-month moality risk. Given its accuracy in predicting sho-term survival among patients with end-stage liver disease, MELD is used by the transplant community in the United States for prioritization of patients awaiting liver transplantation. It was originally developed as a tool to predict moality after transjugular intrahepatic poosystemic shunt (TIPS). The MELD model that is currently used by the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) in prioritizing allocation of deceased donor organs for liver transplantation is calculated according to the following formula: MELD = 3.8 + 11.2 + 9.6 + 6.4 where Ln is the natural logarithm. MELD is scored on a 6- to 40-point scale A higher MELD score indicates a sicker patient, with a higher risk for moality. Priority of liver transplantation is given to the sickest individuals Ref : Schwaz 9/e p297, 1111, 1124