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Determining prognosis in acute liver failure

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Predicting outcome in acute liver failure (ALF) of any kind is difficult and frustrating. To date, no clinical or biochemical combination of markers has proved to be of much value, owing primarily to lack of sensitivity when measured against the actual outcomes observed. Cholongitas et al. investigated four readily available prognostic scores in the setting of acetaminophen-induced ALF.

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Figure 1: Effect of coma grade and etiology on outcome for different etiologies of acute liver failure (W. M. Lee, unpublished data).

References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Digestive and Liver Diseases, UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, 5959 Harry Hines Boulevard, Ste 420, Dallas, 75390-8887, TX, USA

    William M. Lee

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  1. William M. Lee
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Lee, W. Determining prognosis in acute liver failure. Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol 9, 192–194 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrgastro.2012.34

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