Evaluation of prognostic factors for Peg Interferon alfa-2b plus ribavirin treatment on HCV infected patients in Pakistan

• Published in: Infection, genetics and evolution genetics and evolution, 2011-04, Vol.11 (3), p.640-645
• Main Authors: Aziz, Hafsa, Gil, Muzaffar Latif, Waheed, Yasir, Adeeb, Uzama, Raza, Abida, Bilal, Iram, Athar, Muhammad Amin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; alanine transaminase; ALT; Antibiotics. Antiinfectious agents. Antiparasitic agents; Antiviral agents; Antiviral Agents - adverse effects; Antiviral Agents - therapeutic use; Biological and medical sciences; blood serum; body weight; chronic hepatitis C; counseling; Drug Therapy, Combination; Epidemiology. Vaccinations; Female; General aspects; genotype; genotyping; HCV; Hepacivirus; Hepatitis C virus; Hepatitis C, Chronic - drug therapy; Hepatitis C, Chronic - epidemiology; Humans; Infectious diseases; interferon-alpha; Interferon-alpha - adverse effects; Interferon-alpha - therapeutic use; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Multivariate Analysis; nationalities and ethnic groups; Pakistan; Pakistan - epidemiology; patients; PEG-interferon; Pharmacology. Drug treatments; Polyethylene Glycols - adverse effects; Polyethylene Glycols - therapeutic use; Prognosis; Recombinant Proteins; regression analysis; Ribavirin - adverse effects; Ribavirin - therapeutic use; ribonucleosides; RNA; RVR; SVR; therapeutics; Treatment Outcome; viral load; viruses; Young Adult
• ISSN: 1567-1348; 1567-7257
• DOI: 10.1016/j.meegid.2011.01.022

The effective standard therapeutic regimen for patients with chronic hepatitis C is pegylated interferon plus ribavirin. The efficacy of treatment in chronic hepatitis C is defined as absence of detectable virus at six months after treatment. Analysis of patient dependent and virus related factors that enable us to predict the response to antiviral treatment is very important. We prospectively studied 403 patients who received PEG-IFN alpha-2b 1.5μg/kg/body weight plus ribavirin. Treatment was administrated for 24 weeks and 48 weeks for hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotypes 3 and 1, respectively. Out of 403 treated patients, 301 patients (74.7%) showed a sustained virologic response (SVR). Seven variables (age, sex, ethnic group, pretreatment viral load, HCV genotyping and pretreatment ALT) were chosen as possible predictors of SVR and were analysed by means of univariable and multivariable logistic regression analysis. Five variables were statistically significant (p