Resolution of acute hepatitis C after therapy with natural beta interferon.
To test whether interferon can prevent acute non-A, non-B hepatitis from becoming chronic, a prospective controlled trial was conducted in 25 patients; 11 were treated for an average of 30 days with a mean of 52 megaunits of interferon and 14 acted as controls. 4 patients in the treatment group who continued to have raised serum aminotransferase concentrations after a year's follow-up were given a second course of interferon. Follow-up at 3 years has revealed that all but 1 of those treated showed normal serum aminotransferase, whereas only 3 controls showed such change (p less than 0.02). Serum hepatitis C virus RNA became undetectable in 10 of 11 treated and in only 1 of 12 control patients, which suggests that interferon prevents the progression of acute non-A, non-B hepatitis to chronicity by eradicating HCV.
1st Department of Medicine, Chiba University School of Medicine, Japan.
M
M
Omata
O
O
Yokosuka
S
S
Takano
N
N
Kato
K
K
Hosoda
F
F
Imazeki
M
M
Tada
Y
Y
Ito
M
M
Ohto
D000208:Acute Disease; D000328:Adult; D000410:Alanine Transaminase / Q000097:blood; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006508:Hepatitis Antibodies / Q000097:blood; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000097:blood / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D016899:Interferon-beta / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008297:Male; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000097:blood; D012008:Recurrence
D006508:Hepatitis Antibodies; D012367:RNA, Viral; D016899:Interferon-beta; D000410:Alanine Transaminase