Ascites is a clinical scenario frequently encountered in primary care, internal medicine and gastroenterology. Formal guidelines on its approach and management exist and recommend measuring the serum-ascites albumin gradient (SAAG) as part of the routine evaluation of new-onset ascites to guide the clinician in determining the underlying etiology [1,2]. SAAG is in reality a discrete numerical variable that was dichotomized in early studies from which ascites guidelines support their recommendations [3,4].
