A new system adopted in 2002 for allocating livers for transplantation seems to be working for African-Americans, who are more likely to have to wait longer, a new report discloses.

A nationwide study, published in the November 26 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, revealed that a new medical priority ranking system called MELD is helping black patients who are waiting their turn on the U.S.’s liver transplant list. Due to this approach, which uses objective methods, African-Americans are not anymore more likely to die or to fall ill while awaiting a liver donor.

Using a national database, Cynthia A. Moylan, M.D., of Duke University Medical Center, Durham, N.C., and colleagues tried to find out if racial or sex-related disparities regarding the access to liver transplantation still exist, although MELD has been put into place for several years.

The findings showed an elimination in racial disparity since the implementation of the MELD (Model for End-Stage Liver Disease) system. Risk of death or becoming very ill within 3 years of waiting on the organ transplant list was higher in black patients before 2002, compared to white patients (27.0 percent vs. 21.7 percent), but not after MELD was adopted (26.5 percent vs. 22.0 percent).

However, it appears that women don’t have the same luck, since they remained at the bottom of liver transplant waiting lists. Researchers can’t justify why sex differences persist in the face of using the new system. "One possibility is that the creatinine, which is the measure of their kidney function and is a key part of the MELD score, is in general lower for women,” said says Dr. Andrew Muir, a hematologist at Duke University.

According to the United Network for Organ Sharing, more than 16,000 people in the United States need a new liver.