A practical approaching to identifying cirrhosis in clinical practice is to consider cirrhosis as defined by either confirmation by liver biopsy or on the basis of radiological findings (nodular liver with enlarged spleen) with either a history of complications of liver disease (ascites, variceal bleeding, encephalopathy, pervious bacterial peritonitis) or supportive laboratory findings (low platelets, low albumin, prolonged prothrombin time or INR). The gene discussed is ALB; the disease is Encephalopathy.