Letter to the Editor
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. Oct 27, 2020; 12(10): 880-882
Published online Oct 27, 2020. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v12.i10.880
Role of platelet-albumin-bilirubin score in predicting re-bleeding after band ligation for acute variceal hemorrhage
Muhammad S Faisal, Tavankit Singh, Hina Amin, Jamak Modaresi Esfeh
Muhammad S Faisal, Department of Internal Medicine, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH 44195, United States
Tavankit Singh, Hina Amin, Jamak Modaresi Esfeh, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH 44195, United States
Author contributions: Faisal MS and Amin H collected data. Singh T and Modaresi Esfeh J designed the study, reviewed the data and letter. Faisal MS performed the statistical analysis and wrote the letter, Modaresi Esfeh J revised the letter.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Authors have no conflict of interests to disclose
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Muhammad S Faisal, MD, Doctor, Department of Internal Medicine, Cleveland Clinic, 9500 Euclid Ave, Cleveland, OH 44195, United States. faisalm@ccf.org
Received: July 2, 2020
Peer-review started: July 2, 2020
First decision: July 30, 2020
Revised: September 17, 2020
Accepted: September 25, 2020
Article in press: September 25, 2020
Published online: October 27, 2020
Abstract

Platelet-albumin-bilirubin (PALBI) score was proposed by Roayaie et al with modification of previously studied albumin-bilirubin score to include platelet as an indicator of portal hypertension in 2015. Predictive value of this score was recently tested by Elshaarawy et al for re-bleeding in patients presenting with acute variceal hemorrhage. We did a similar study at our center (n = 170) to look at incidence of re-bleeding after band ligation defined as drop in 2 units of hemoglobin and witnessed melena or hematemesis within 2 wk of the procedure. We calculated PALBI scores for all patients based on lab values prior to the procedure. Of 25.3% had re-bleeding episodes, area under receiver operating characteristic curve for PALBI as predictor of re-bleeding was 0.601 (95% confidence interval: 0.502-0.699). PALBI score showed moderate accuracy at predicting re-bleeding in our population.

Keywords: Cirrhosis, Band ligation, Portal hypertension, Ascites, Platelet-albumin-bilirubin, Model of end stage liver disease

Core Tip: Platelet-albumin-bilirubin score showed moderate accuracy in predicting re-bleeding after band ligation in patients presenting with acute variceal hemorrhage.