Abstract: Objective To investigate the reasonable diagnosis of patients with acute exacerbated liver function in patients with decompensated liver cirrhosis. Methods 100 patients with acute exacerbated liver function with underlying decompensated cirrhosis and 200 patients with acute on chronic liver failure （ACLF） were retrospectively analyzed in our hospital. Blood biochemical parameters and blood coagulation function index were routinely detected. SPSS 16.0 software was used to analyze the clinical materials. Results Active replication of hepatitis B virus-induced acute liver injuries accounted for（73.3%），and other causes for（26.7%） in the 300 patients；serum levels of albumin and serum sodium in patients with liver cirrhosis were（27.2±4.2） g/l and 130.5（90.1，143.8） mmol/l，significantly lower than in patients with ACLF[（29.5±4.5） g/l and 134.2（78.7，143.0），P＜0.05）；In liver cirrhosis group，the occurrence rates of hepatorenal syndrome，spontaneous bacterial peritonitis and hyponatremia were 26.0%，57.0% and 75.0%，much higher than in patients with ACLF （13.0%，42.0% and 53.0%， respectively （P＜0.05），while there was no statistical significances in hepatic encephalopathy，gastrointestinal bleeding and infection （P＞0.05） between the two groups；the recovery rate was 10.0% in cirrhosis patients，much lower than 25.5% in ACLF patients（P＜0.05）. Conclusion The exacerbated liver function in patients with decompensated liver cirrhosis tends to has some precipitating factors. The patients presents with the same clinical manifestations of acute liver decompensation in patients with ACLF and portal hypertension. What type of hepatic failure should it be needs further investigation.

Key words: Decompensated liver cirrhosis, Acute on chronic liver failure, Acute exacerbation of liver function, Clinical feature