RESUMO
To find out the effect of antiviral therapy on hematological parameters in patients of chronic hepatitis. Interventional descriptive study. Military hospital [MH] Rawalpindi Pakistan from May to Oct 2004. 31 patients admitted to M.H Rawalpindi for treatment of chronic hepatitis were studied. Their hematological parameters including Total Leucocyte count [TLC], Haemoglobin [Hb] and Platelet count [Plt] were recorded before starting antiviral therapy and then at 3 monthly intervals. All the patients were given Inj Alpha-Interferon [INF] and Tab Ribavirin as antiviral therapy. Data was collected over a period of 6 months. Descriptive statistics were applied to the recorded data using SPSS ver-10.0 for analysis. 31 patients with mean age +/- SD 38.58 +/- 8.85 years [range 16-49 years] were studied. There was mean hemoglobin [Hb] fall of 0.87g/dl at 3 months and 2g/dl at 6 months of antiviral therapy. Mean Total leukocyte count [TLC] fall of 1.30x10[9]/L at 3 months and 1.87x109/L was noted at 6 months. Similar downward trend was noted in Platelet [Plt] values with mean fall of 23.19x10[9]/mm[3] and 28.29/ mm[3] at 3 and 6 months of antiviral therapy respectively. 10% of the cases developed clinically significant anemia as evidenced by hemoglobin 11g/dl after 6 months of antiviral therapy. Clinically significant leucopenia [< 2.5x10[9]/l] was noted in 7% of the cases. This fall was noted only in first three months of treatment. There is significant decrimental response of hematological parameters to antiviral therapy