“…Predictors of poor prognosis include: age > 65 years, shock, poor overall health, comorbid conditions, low initial hemoglobin/hematocrit, active bleeding (red blood per rectum or hematemesis), sepsis, and elevated creatinine or serum transaminases [2,8,9] . Several scoring systems have been created and/or validated for this purpose, including APACHE Ⅱ, Forrest Classification, Blatchford, pre-endoscopic Rockall, Baylor College, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and Rockall indexes (Table 1 compares 6 commonly used scoring systems) [10,11] . Some of these may be cumbersome (APACHE Ⅱ) or require data not immediately available based on initial clinical assessment (the Rockall Scoring System, for instance, requires endoscopic data) and therefore may be of limited utility in the acute setting [12] .…”