The impact and evolution of acute-on-chronic liver failure in decompensated cirrhosis: A Portuguese single-center study

Introduction: Acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) is a dynamic syndrome that should be assessed repeatedly. An algorithm for risk stratification in decompensated cirrhosis was recently proposed by the EASL-CLIF (European Association for the Study of the Liver-Chronic Liver Failure) Consortium.

Aim: To validate the EASL-CLIF Consortium scores in patients with and without ACLF.

Materials and methods: Retrospective single-center cohort study including patients admitted for acute decompensation of cirrhosis between January 2014 and December 2015, and followed-up until December 2016. We separated patients with and without ACLF and compared the various EASL-CLIF Consortium scores to Child-Pugh and MELD for predicting 28-day (M28), 90-day and 12-month mortality. These scores were recalculated at different time points over 28 days.

Results: 106 patients were included (age 60.3±10.7 years; 87.7% male), 35.8% of whom met ACLF criteria on admission (50%) or during hospitalization. A CLIF-C AD Score ≥60 on admission was associated with a higher risk of developing ACLF. The onset of ACLF during hospitalization portended a poor prognosis. The prognostic performance of the CLIF-C ACLF Score (AUROC for M28: 0.856±0.071) was globally comparable to that of Child-Pugh and MELD. Overall, ACLF resolved in 54.1% patients, resulting in increased survival. Almost 40% of the patients reached their final ACLF grade after ≥8 days, with 13.9% of ACLF patients experiencing resolution by then.

Discussion: We confirmed the accuracy and clinical value of the several proposed scores in our population. Prognosis was better defined by the early clinical course than by the initial evaluation, emphasizing the importance of repeated assessments.