Incidence of anti- Interferon-a 2 antibodies in Egyptian HCV Infected Patients Treated with PEG-IFN-alpha 2 and Influence on Response To Treatment

The standard therapy for HCV is the pegylated rhIFN-a2 plus Ribavirin. Treatment with IFN is associated occasionally with the development of anti-IFN Abs. The aim of this research was to determine the incidence and etiology for development of anti- IFN-alpha2 antibodies in Egyptian HCV infected patients treated with PEG IFN- alpha 2a and Ribavirin, and their influence on response to treatment. The virological response was determined using nested HCV RT-PCR for 56 HCV infected patients treated for 12 months. The results showed that 55.3% of those patients were responders and 44.7% were non responders. The formations of anti-IFN- alpha 2 IgG Abs in those patients have been assessed using ELISA. The incidence of development of antibodies was 6/31[19.4%] in responders, and 12/25[48%] in non-responders. The statistically significant association [p < 0.05] between non-responding to treatment and the incidence of these antibodies, indicates the influence of these antibodies on treatment outcome. No statistical significant association [p>0.05] had been found between the incidence of these antibodies and other clinical data [ALT level, gender and age] of patients. No significance difference had been found between reactivity of these antibodies towards rhIFN-a2a and rhIFN-a2b

Central neuropsychiatric complications of hepatitis C virus infection in Egyptian patients

Central neuropsychiatric hepatitis C virus [HCV]-associated disorders have been described with increasing frequency in the literature. Anticardiolipin antibodies [aCL] associated with HCV may be an important marker for the central neurological complications. furthermore, cryoglobulinemia could be an important genic factor for such complications. To study various central neuro-psychiatric complications of chronic hepatitis C infection and their possible pathogenetic mechanisms. This study was conducted upon 160 Egyptian patients with chronic hepatitis C infection. They were subdivided into 2 subgroups: Group I which included 80 chronic hepatitis C patients with clinically apparent neuropsychiatric complication [s] and group II which included 80 chronic hepatitis C patients neuropsychiatric asymptomatic. The control group included 30 healthy volunteers as a control group for the neuropsychological evaluation. Patients were subjected to clinical neuropsychological evaluation, estimation of hepatitis markers, cryoglobulins, anticardiolipin antibodies, antinuclear antibodies, EEG, MRI brain. In neuropsychiatric manifested HCV patients, the most commonly encountered disorders were memory impairment and mood disorders each affected 11.7% of patients red by fatigue which affected 10% of patients then cerebrovascular complications and tension-type headache each.affected 8.3% of patients and in less frequency, late onset idiopathic intracranial hypertension and CNS infections There was highly statistical significant difference between both groups regarding the presence of cryoglobulin, anticardiolipin antibody, antinuclear antibody, EEG changes and MRL lesions being more common in group I. Cognitive impairment, mood disorders, fatigue, cerebrovascular complications are common with HCV infection especially when associated with+ve cryoglobulins, ACL and antinuclear antibodies