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Background The transition from compensated to decompensated liver cirrhosis is a hallmark of disease progression, however, reliable predictors to assess the risk of decompensation in individual patients from routine diagnostics are lacking. Here, we characterize serum levels of cell death-associated markers and routine biochemistry from patients with chronic liver disease with and without decompensation. Methods A post-hoc analysis was based on prospectively collected clinical data from 160 patients with chronic liver disease, stably compensated or decompensated at baseline or during follow-up, over a median period of 721 days. Serum levels of damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) and routine biochemistry are quantified at baseline (for all patients) and during follow-up (for patients with acute decompensation). The panel of DAMPs assessed in this study comprises high-mobility group-box protein 1 (HMGB1), cytochrome C (cyt C), soluble Fas-ligand (sFasL), interleukin 6 (IL-6), soluble cytokeratin-18 (CK18-M65) and its caspase‐cleaved fragment CK18-M30. Results In this cohort study, 80 patients (50%) were diagnosed with alcoholic liver cirrhosis, 60 patients (37.5%) with hepatitis C virus- and 20 patients (13.5%) with hepatitis B virus-related liver cirrhosis. At baseline, 17 patients (10.6%) showed decompensated liver disease and another 28 patients (17.5%) developed acute decompensation during follow-up (within 24 months). One hundred fifteen patients showed stable liver disease (71.9%). We found DAMPs significantly elevated in patients with decompensated liver disease versus compensated liver disease. Patients with acute decompensation during follow-up showed higher baseline levels of IL-6, sFasL, CK18-M65 and–M30 (PConclusions DAMPs are elevated in patients with decompensated liver disease and patients developing acute decompensation. The prognostic value of a marker combination with soluble Fas-ligand and GGT in patients with liver cirrhosis should be further evaluated.