title: Biochemical response to interferon of chronic hepatitis in drug-addict patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus.
abstract: The effects of IFN treatment were retrospectively evaluated for 18 drug-addict patients with symptomatic HIV infection and chronic hepatitis C. Most of the patients were receiving concomitant treatment with zidovudine. Seven out of the 18 patients (39%) stopped IFN after less than three months, most of them for non-compliance. Among the 11 patients who completed a 6-12 month period of IFN treatment, 3 (27%) normalized and maintained normal ALT levels during therapy: for 2 of them the response was sustained after IFN discontinuation. The response to IFN therapy was neither correlated to the CD4+ levels nor to the clinical stage of the HIV infection. Instead, the response seemed to be influenced by pre-therapy ALT levels and liver histology. Tolerance to IFN treatment was good. These data show that IFN may be indicated in the therapy of chronic HCV infection for HIV-positive patients.
authors.affiliation: Clinica Malattie Infettive, Facolta di Medicina, Seconda Universita di Napoli.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nardiello
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Pizzella
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gargiulo
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gramenzi
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Digilio
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Di Ottavio
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Galanti