The correlation of Child-Pugh score, PGA index and MELD score in the patient with liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma according to the cause of alcohol and hepatitis B virus

BACKGROUND/AIMS: To determine the treatment modalities and the prognosis of a patient with liver cirrhosis, quantitative estimation of liver function is important. We assessed the Child-Pugh score (CPS), the common method as a severity index for the cirrhosis, the Prothrombin, gammaGT, and Apolipoprotein A1 (PGA) index and model for end-stage liver disease (MELD) score. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the correlation between these indices in the patients with cirrhosis only and hepatocellular carcinoma (PHC), according to underlying causes (HBV and alcohol). METHODS: We reviewed medical records of 339 cirrhotic patients with/without hepatocellular carcinoma and divided patient groups by disease and underlying cause: cirrhosis caused by alcohol; LC-Al, cirrhosis caused by HBV; LC-B, hepatocellular carcinoma with cirrhosis caused by alcohol; HCC-Al, hepatocellular carcinoma with cirrhosis caused by HBV; HCC-B. We assessed the CPS, PGA index and MELD score and calculated the correlation coefficient between these scores. RESULTS: Among the total of 339 patients, 201 patients were diagnosed on the liver cirrhosis only, and 138 patients on the hepatocellular carcinoma with cirrhosis. In each groups, mean score values were not significantly different in CPS, PGA index and MELD score. The correlation of CPS, PGA index and MELD score in all groups, except for the correlation of PGA index and MELD score in HCC-Al group, was significantly positive (p<0.05). Compared to correlation coefficients between three indices, the patients with cirrhosis only had higher tendencies than the patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. The patients by HBV had higher tendencies than by alcohol. CONCLUSIONS: The correlations between CPS, PGA index and MELD score showed significantly positive correlations in the patients with liver cirrhosis only and hepatocellular carcinoma with cirrhosis (except in HCC-Al group). The patients with cirrhosis only had higher correlation coefficients than the patients with PHC and the patients by HBV had higher than by alcohol.