Treatment of hepatitis C virus infection in patients of northern India
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Date
2004Author
Hazari, S
Panda, SK
Gupta, SD
Batra, Y
Singh, R
Acharya, KS
Type
ArticleLanguage
enMetadata
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BACKGROUND AND AIM: The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the therapeutic response of north Indian patients with chronic hepatitis C (CH-C) to two different treatment regimens of interferon and ribavirin. METHODS: Consecutive patients with a diagnosis of CH-C attending the Liver Clinic at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi between April 1999 and April 2002 were included in the study. A competitive reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method developed in the authors' laboratory was used for quantification of hepatitis C virus (HCV)-RNA. Genotyping of HCV was also determined. The clinical, biochemical, virological and histological parameters were used to assess the therapeutic response among a clinical cohort of patients with chronic hepatitis C. They were treated with two different protocols (interferon [IFN]-alpha-2b, 3 million units daily and ribavirin 10.6 mg/kg daily in two divided doses for 6 months or IFN-alpha-2b, 3 million units thrice weekly and ribavirin 10.6 mg/kg daily for 6 months). RESULTS: Sixty-five patients with CH-C were included in the study. Blood transfusion (n = 28, 43%) and community-acquired (n = 23, 35%) HCV infections were the commonest. The mean HCV load was high (24.14 +/- 12.5 x 10(8) copies/mL). Genotype 2 and 3 were prevalent in 80% (41/51) of the patients. Forty-five patients received 3 million units of IFN thrice weekly and 20 received the same dose daily. All received the same dose of ribavirin. A sustained virological response (SVR) of 95% (19/20) was achieved among patients receiving daily IFN, whereas 64.4% (29/45) of those who received IFN thrice weekly had SVR. The virological relapse was significantly lower among patients who received daily IFN than in those treated with thrice weekly IFN (n = 1/20, 5% vs 10/39, 25.6%; P = 0.015). The proportion of patients receiving daily IFN among those achieving SVR (19/48, 40%) was significantly higher than the proportion of patients receiving similar therapy among patients without SVR (1/17, 6%; P = 0.02). CONCLUSIONS: Transfusion and community-acquired HCV infection were the major causes of CH-C. Genotype 2 and 3 HCV were most prevalent among these patients. Despite high viral load, these patients responded well to a combination of daily IFN-alpha-2b and ribavirin. Copyright 2004 Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd
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http://profiles.uonbi.ac.ke/sacharya/publications/hazari-s-panda-sk-gupta-sd-batra-y-singh-r-acharya-sktreatment-hepatitis-c-virhttp://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/44858
Citation
KIRTDA, DRACHARYAS. 2004. Hazari S, Panda SK, Gupta SD, Batra Y, Singh R, Acharya SK.Treatment of hepatitis C virus infection in patients of northern India.J Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2004 Sep;19(9):1058-65..Publisher
Department of Medicine, College of Health Sciences, University of Nairobi
Collections
- Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) [10378]