Correlation Between MELD and UNa/K Ratio in Predicting Renal Dysfunction in Cirrhotic Patients

Renal dysfunction is one of the dreaded complications of cirrhosis. MELD is a validated chronic liver disease (CLD) severity scoring system. Urinary (U) Na/K ratio closely correlates with renal dysfunction in terms of low GFR in cirrhotic patients.

All consecutive patients with decompensated cirrhosis between the age of 18 to 70 years, of either gender, presenting in the outpatients' department of Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation, Karachi, from June 2015 to June 2017 were included. The MELD score was calculated and the UNa/K ratio less than 1 was taken as surrogate marker of renal dysfunction. Statistical analysis was performed by SPSS (version 20.0).

A total of 71 patients were enrolled. The mean age was 43.79 years and majority were male (67.6%). The most common cause of liver cirrhosis was HCV, found in 42 (59.2%) patients. The mean CTP score was 10.48 ± 2.069 (range: 6-14) with majority of the patients following in class C, that is, 48 (67.6%). Mean MELD score was 21.75 ± 8.96 (range: 8-43). In 57 patients (80.3%), MELD score was > 15.The mean serum creatinine and mean serum sodium were 1.5 ± 1.1 mg/dl (range: 0.37-5.3) and 133.79 ± 6.9 mmol/L (range: 112-152), respectively. Mean urinary sodium and urinary potassium were 38.60 ± 46.64 mmol/L (range: 5-181) and 38.15 ± 23.9 mmol/L (range: 4.3-112), respectively. In majority of study population, UNa/K ratio was below 1, that is, in 52 patients (73.2%). Statistically significant correlation was documented between MELD score and UNa/K ratio (ɤ = 0.34, P = 0.004).

The inverse correlation between MELD scores and UNa/K ratio indicates that patients with CLD and higher MELD scores might have renal dysfunction. This finding however should be corroborated by large scale studies.