We read with great interest the article by van der Meer et al 1 recently published in Gut. They found that a simple algorithm based on demographic and readily available laboratory variables is able to predict long-term prognosis of patients with chronic HCV infection and well-compensated, advanced liver disease. Indeed, in this time and age, an accurate assessment of the outcome of patients with HCV infection and advanced fibrosis is of utmost importance as prognostic subclassification may help prioritise those who are in urgent need of antiviral treatment within an homogeneous group of patients who are equally candidates to therapy. The findings of this study are especially relevant as the results were validated in an independent cohort of patients with similar disease stage.

The parameters identified in this study as predictors of …