Musa SALMANOĞLU, Süleyman BAŞ, Yasemin ARMUTÇUOĞLU, İrfan KÜÇÜK
Anatolian Current Medical Journal - 2026;8(2):257-264
Aims: The albumin-bilirubin (ALBI) score has been evaluated in various liver diseases, however its clinical relevance in alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD) remains unclear. This study aimed to evaluate whether the ALBI score reflects disease severity in patients with alcohol-associated hepatitis (AH) and alcohol-associated cirrhosis (AC). Methods: In this retrospective case control study, 51 AH patients, 39 AC patients, and 48 healthy controls (HCs) were included. The ALBI score was calculated for all participants. The Child-Pugh classification (CPC A-C) was recorded for AC, while Maddrey's Discriminant Function (MDF) for AH. The Model for End-Stage Liver Disease Sodium (MELD-Na) score was calculated for both patient groups, and the Fibrosis-4 (FIB-4) index was calculated in all participants. Results: Mean ALBI scores were highest in the AH patients and the lowest in the HCs (p<0.001). Statistically significant differences were observed between the AH and AC groups, AH and HC groups, and AC and HC groups (all p<0.001). In the AH group, no significant correlation was observed between the ALBIs and MDF, however, ALBI scores showed positive correlations with FIB-4 and MELD-Na scores (p=0.046; p<0.001). Among patients with AC, the lowest mean ALBI scores were observed in the CPC-A subgroup, while the highest were observed in the CPC-C subgroup (p<0.001). ALBI scores were positively correlated with both FIB-4 and MELD-Na scores (p<0.001; p<0.001). Conclusion: Elevated ALBI scores may have diagnostic value and reflect disease severity and hepatic dysfunction in patients with AH and AC.
