Response to ribavirin treatment in patients with chronic hepatitis C

Ribavirin is a nucleosi.de analogue with a broad spectrum of antiviral action. 17 patients with chronic hepatitis C were treated with oral ribavirin at a dose of 15 mg/Kg per day for 6 months. S e m alanine aminotransferase [ALT] activities decreased significantly [P<0.005] during ribavirin treatment [mean ALT before treatment was 117.01 +/- 50.3 1 U/ ml and 65.01 +/- 31.09 U/ml by the end of treatment]. ALT levels became normal in 5 cases [29.5%], significantly decreased in 8 cases [47%], but did not significantly change in the remaining 4 cases [23.5%]. Serum ALT in all the responding patients returned to pretreatment levels 2 months after stopping the treatment. Before treatment, serum hepatitis C virus [HCVRNA was detected by polymerase chain reaction [PCR] in all 17 patients. At the end of treatment, 5 of these 17 patients had become negative for HCV - RNA but they became positive again 3 months after discontinuation of treatment. The response to ribavirin was not correlated with HCV genotypes and liver histopathology in all patients and there was no significant difference between responders and non-responders. Ribavirin treatment resulted in mild, reversible hemolysis and none of the patients exhibited symptomatic anemia. These findings suggest that ribavirin has a beneficia1 effect on patients with chronic hepatitis C, although further studies are needed to determine how ribavirin can be best used