The aim of our study was to design simple and practical quantitative scores or indices suitable for deciding a pre-liver transplantation work-up in patients with parenchymal cirrhosis. A Pugh score (combining five variables) superior to 8 or a p value inferior to 0.7 of a logistic regression equation containing only two variables (score of ascites and result of 14C aminopyrine breath test) were found to be highly effective for making this decision.