title: Role of iron in the natural history and clinical course of hepatitis C disease.
abstract: The following review evaluates the current data implicating a role for hepatic iron in enhancing the liver injury in patients with chronic hepatitis C infection. Iron removal lowers transaminases, but doesn't appear to improve responsiveness to interferon-alpha therapy. An important effect of iron removal might be to delay progression of liver injury to fibrosis and cirrhosis. Until such a hypothesis is disproven, phlebotomy therapy for even mildly iron-loaded HCV patients is recommended.
authors.affiliation: University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Lexington, USA.
authors.forename: S I
authors.initials: SI
authors.lastname: Shedlofsky
mesh_terms: D000998:Antiviral Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D005260:Female; D019698:Hepatitis C, Chronic / Q000150:complications / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D016898:Interferon-alpha / Q000627:therapeutic use; D007501:Iron / Q000378:metabolism*; D019190:Iron Overload / Q000150:complications* / Q000517:prevention & control; D008099:Liver / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D018384:Oxidative Stress; D018962:Phlebotomy
chemical_list: D000998:Antiviral Agents; D016898:Interferon-alpha; D007501:Iron