Correlation between APRI Index, MELD Score and Child Pugh Score in cirrhosis of liver

ABSTRACT

Background: Liver cirrhosis is the end result of chronic liver injury and is one of the most common cause of morbidity and mortality. Several scorings are available to predict the severity and prognosis of liver cirrhosis. This study aims to calculate APRI index, MELD score and child Pugh score in cirrhosis patients and to find the correlation between them.Methods: This is the Cross-sectional study on 100 patients confirmed with cirrhosis of liver. Cirrhosis due to alcohol, Hepatitis B and C, autoimmune, Cryptogenic, NAFLD, were included in the study. APRI Index, MELD Score and Child Pugh Score were calculated, and the correlation was obtained.Results: This study found out the relationship between APRI index, MELD Score and Child Pugh Score with significant p value. The study also showed that all the three scores were raised with patients who had complication of cirrhosis like encephalopathy, refractory ascites. Among those who had complication like grade 3 or 4 encephalopathy, APRI index had a mean value of 3.4, Child Pugh had a mean score of 13.2, and MELD had a mean score of 36.08 with standard deviation of 2.0, 1.5, 6.0 respectively.Conclusions: APRI index is an independent predictor of morbidity and mortality. The prognostic performance of all 3 was comparable, Hence APRI index can be used as an alternative scoring which is cost effective and objective method in predicting the severity and prognosis in cirrhosis of liver.