Ferritin and liver allocation? Impact on mortality not only on the waiting list but also after orthotopic liver transplantation should be considered.

摘要

Recently, Walker and colleagues1 published a retrospective dual-center study of the impact of serum ferritin (SF) on the mortality of candidates for ortho topic liver transplantation (OLT). They found baseline SF levels greater than 200 mug/L to be an independent predictor of waiting-list mortality, and they showed that the addition of SF to Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) parameters increased prognostic accuracy. Because additional factors to improve MELD-based organ allocation would be generally desirable, the authors proposed the incorporation of SF into the MELD-based allocation system (as currently discussed for serum sodium ).