Background: The existing conventional liver function tests (LFTs) are indirect, inferior and have limited prognostic value. Therefore, the monoethylglycinexylidide (MEGX) test, which provides a direct measure of the actual functional state of the liver, is proposed as a real-time liver function test. The objective of this study was to assess the prognostic value of the MEGX test in cirrhosis by comparing it with Child-Turcotte-Pugh (CTP), the Mayo end stage liver disease (MELD) and discriminant function (DF) scores.
Materials and methods: The study was carried out in Satara, India during the period of January 2005 to June 2006 and included 79 adult alcoholic cirrhotic patients. The serum specimen from each patient was analyzed using conventional LFTs and the MEGX test. The prognostic scores-CTP, MELD and DF scores were calculated and statistical analyses was performed.
Results: Based on receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, the MELD score and MEGX60 showed excellent sensitivity and specificity. The comparison of area under ROC curves showed that MELD and MEGX60 had superior prognostic accuracy when compared to other scores. Kaplan-Meier survival curves for corresponding cutoff values clearly differentiated between patients with different survival times.
Conclusion: The MEGX test has shown more sensitivity, specificity and accuracy than CTP and DF scores in determining cases with the possibility of three- and six-month survival. Thus, it can be concluded that MEGX test along with MELD, is an effective prognostic tool in the hands of clinicians for predicting short-term survival.