Predictive factors for success and failure of pegylated interferon/ribavirin therapy in chronic hepatitis C patients

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study was to determine the clinical, biological, virological and histological predictive factors for success and failure of pegylated interferon/Ribavirin therapy among Egyptian patients infected by hepatitis C virus [HCV]. This retrospective study included 100 patients with HCV infection who underwent clinical, biochemical and virological assessments before treatment and at 12, 24 and 48 weeks from the start of treatment. The selected patients were divided equally into two groups according to the seroconversion state after receiving a course of pegylated interferon and ribavirin. Group I 50 patients with CHC who show seroconversion after 12, 24 and 48 weeks of treatment. Group II 50 patients with CHC who did not show good virological response after 12 and 24 weeks of treatment and they further divided into two groups Group II A 25 patients who stop treatment at 12 weeks due to absence of virological response [S 2 log decline in HCV RNA by Quantitative PCR] and Group II B 25 patients who siop treatment at 24 weeks due to presence of detected HCV RNA by Qualitative PCR. At the end of this study we found that the best positive predictor factors that associated with good virological response before treatment are male sex, younger patients, low BMI, low APP, low viremia and low grade of activity and fibrosis in liver biopsy. The positive predictive factors that associated with good virological response after 12 weeks of treatment are low liver enzymes low viremia and early virological response