MELD score

MELD score

Model for End-stage Liver Disease score. A system used to prioritise patients on liver transplant waiting lists, which may be less powerful in predicting death or removal from the waiting list due to deteriorating liver function than the Child-Turcotte-Pugh scoring system.

MELD score

[acronym for model end state liver disease] A tool for characterizing the severity of liver disease, esp. used in patients who are seeking a liver transplant. Patients with higher scores (more severe liver disease) are given a higher priority for receiving donor organs. MELD relies on the repeated measurement of three variables: the total bilirubin level, the serum creatinine level, and the INR (international normalized ratio), as adjusted by the following equation: MELD score = 10[0.957L(serum creatinine) + 0.378Ln(total bilirubin) + 1.12Ln(INR) +0.643.