A new treatment strategy for acute liver failure

Figure 2 A method to classify patients with acute liver failure (acute liver injury) based on the grade of intrahepatic macrophage activation. First, patients are classified by their alanine aminotransferase (ALT)/lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) ratio which indicates the degree of hypoxia in liver. When a patient has a high serum concentration of LDH compared with that of ALT, the extent of the involvement of macrophage activation is estimated by the serum ferritin concentration. TASIT: transcatheter arterial steroid injection therapy. PT: prothrombin time; LT: liver transplantation.