title: Importance of pretreatment viral load and monitoring of serum hepatitis C virus RNA in predicting responses to interferon-alpha2a treatment of chronic hepatitis C. Hanshin Chronic Hepatitis C Study Group.
abstract: The aim of this study was to determine what factors correlate with a favorable response to interferon-alpha2a (IFN-alpha2a) treatment in chronic hepatitis C. Fifty patients with chronic hepatitis C who received a 26-week treatment with IFN-alpha2a (474 million units in total) were assessed for pretreatment parameters and biochemical and virologic events during the treatment. According to biochemical and virologic responses to the treatment, 16 patients (32%) were categorized as sustained complete responders (SR), 13 (26%) as initial complete responders (IR), and 21 (42%) as nonresponders (NR). By multivariate analysis, a low viremia level was the only independent predictor of SR among pretreatment parameters (p = 0.0088). The percentage of patients showing hepatitis C virus RNA negativity at 2 and 12 weeks of treatment was significantly higher in SR (94% and 100%, respectively) or IR (69% and 92%, respectively) than in NR (14% and 33%, respectively) (p = 0.001). In contrast, the normalization of serum alanine aminotransferase levels at both time points failed to differentiate among SR, IR, and NR. These results indicate that monitoring of serum hepatitis C virus RNA at an appropriate time during treatment in addition to determination of pretreatment viral load is important in predicting responses to IFN-alpha2a treatment.
authors.affiliation: Fourth Department of Internal Medicine, Hyogo College of Medicine, Nishinomiya, Japan.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wada
authors.forename: K B
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nishigami
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shimoyama
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000410:Alanine Transaminase / Q000097:blood; D000998:Antiviral Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D005260:Female; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D019698:Hepatitis C, Chronic / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000201:enzymology / Q000821:virology; D006801:Humans; D000077190:Interferon alpha-2; D016898:Interferon-alpha / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008657:Metabolic Clearance Rate; D008875:Middle Aged; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic / Q000379:methods*; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011379:Prognosis; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000097:blood; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D019562:Viral Load
chemical_list: D000998:Antiviral Agents; D000077190:Interferon alpha-2; D016898:Interferon-alpha; D012367:RNA, Viral; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D000410:Alanine Transaminase