Efficacy and safety of peginterferon combined with ribavirin for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C in elderly patients: a retrospective study / 中华老年医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluate the efficacy and influence factors of peginterferon combined with ribavirin for the treatment of elderly patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC).Methods 34 CHC patients aged over 60 years were enrolled in this retrospective study.Virological responses,relapse rate and discontinuation rate were evaluated,and the predictive factors associated with these outcomes were analyzed.Results The proportions of rapid virological response (RVR),early virological response (EVR),end of treatment virological response(ETR),sustained virologic response (SVR) were 26.5％,41.2％,52.9％ and 35.3％,respectively in patients after peginterferon plus ribavirin theraphy,and the relapse rate was 33.3％.The relapse rate was higher in patients with the interferon treatment history than in patients with initial interferon treatment (P＜0.05).The rates of ETR and SVR were lower in CHC patients with diabetes than without diabetes (P＜0.05 or 0.01).The ratio of dose adjustment of peginterferon and ribavirin alone and in combination were 26.5％ (9/ 34),61.8％ (21/34) and 8.8％ (3/34),respectively.The discontinuation rate was 20.6％ (7/34).Multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that SVR rate was lower in CHC patients with diabetes than in those without diabetes (P＜ 0.05).Conclusions Peginterferon plus ribavirin therapy has a better virological response,but a poor tolerance in CHC patients.Diabetes may be an important risk factor for sustained virologic response in CHC patients.