Interferon therapy in hepatitis C.
Interferon is effective for the treatment of hepatitis C infection in some patients. Although its effectiveness is established in patients with chronic hepatitis C infection, more work need to be done before it can be recommended for the treatment of patients with acute HCV infection. The currently recommended therapeutic regimen is 3 MU three times weekly, but higher dosages and longer duration of therapy may be more beneficial. Multiple factors including the degree of inflammation and fibrosis, HCV-RNA titer, and HCV genotype may influence the response to therapy. Therefore proper patient selection will improve response rate, and make interferon treatment more cost-effective. No controlled studies have yet evaluated the use of interferon in children with chronic HCV infection. Many questions are yet to be answered regarding interferon therapy in patients with chronic hepatitis C, thus we recommend all patients who belong to these categories be enrolled in clinical trials.
Zein
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Department of Medicine, Mayo Clinic and Foundation, Rochester, MN.
Rakela
J
J
D000208:Acute Disease; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000235:genetics; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000628:therapy*; D006521:Hepatitis, Chronic / Q000628:therapy* / Q000821:virology; D006801:Humans; D000077190:Interferon alpha-2; D016898:Interferon-alpha / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008099:Liver / Q000473:pathology; D016031:Liver Transplantation; D008297:Male; D011994:Recombinant Proteins
D000077190:Interferon alpha-2; D016898:Interferon-alpha; D011994:Recombinant Proteins