Clinical Implication of Plasma CD163 in Patients With Acute-on-Chronic Liver Failure

•Acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) is a coincidence of liver cirrhosis decompensation with an acute burst of inflammation.•The outcome in ACLF is significantly poorer than in traditional decompensation, with high short-term morbidity and mortality depending on the severity of the systemic inflammation and number of organ failures.•Liver transplantation represents the definitive treatment. However, the severity of the clinical course of ACLF makes the transplant window narrow, and we are looking for optimal biomarkers to prognose benefit or futility of liver transplantation in this setting.•Unfortunately, CD163 in this pilot study did not to outperform existing prognostic scales in ACLF.