title: Impact of shorter duration of treatment on virological response rate in genotype 2 or 3 chronic hepatitis C virus infection.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the effect of shortened duration of pegylated interferon (PEG-IFN) and ribavirin (RIB) treatment on sustained virological response (SVR) rates in treatment-naomicronve patients with chronic hepatitis due to genotype 2 or 3 hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and high pre-treatment viral load (>800,000 IU/mL).
  
  
  METHODS
  Records of 142 patients with chronic hepatitis C (22 with cirrhosis) who had been treated with PEG-IFN and RIB for 24 weeks (Group A, n=88), both drugs for 12-16 weeks (Group B, n=39), or with PEG-IFN for 12-16 weeks and RIB for 24 weeks (Group C, n=15), were analyzed retrospectively.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall, 81.7% of patients had SVR (Group A: 88.6%, Group B: 69.2% and Group C: 73.3%, p=0.02). Failure to achieve SVR was significantly related to treatment group (p=0.026 for Group B and p=0.002 for Group C, versus Group A), older age (p=0.023), higher liver biopsy stage (p=0.001) and presence of cirrhosis (p< 0.0001). In patients without cirrhosis, only the treatment group (p=0.018 for Group B and p=0.002 for Group C, compared to Group A) independently predicted failure to achieve SVR.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Shorter duration of PEG-IFN treatment (12-16 weeks) adversely affected the SVR rate in patients with genotype 2 or 3 HCV infection. However, increasing the duration of RIB administration (12-16 weeks versus 24 weeks) in such patients did not have any beneficial effect on SVR in patients receiving short-duration PEG-IFN.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Hepatology Unit, Hippokration Hospital, Athens, Greece. ielefs@acn.gr
authors.forename: Ioannis S
authors.initials: IS
authors.lastname: Elefsiniotis
authors.forename: Konstantinos D
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Pantazis
authors.forename: Dimitrios
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Dimitroulopoulos
authors.forename: Sotirios
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Koutsounas
authors.forename: Antonios
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Moulakakis
authors.forename: Emmanouel
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Paraskevas
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000998:Antiviral Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D004334:Drug Administration Schedule; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000235:genetics*; D019698:Hepatitis C, Chronic / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000821:virology; D006801:Humans; D000077190:Interferon alpha-2; D016898:Interferon-alpha / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011092:Polyethylene Glycols; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012254:Ribavirin / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D019562:Viral Load
chemical_list: D000998:Antiviral Agents; D000077190:Interferon alpha-2; D016898:Interferon-alpha; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D011092:Polyethylene Glycols; D012254:Ribavirin; C417083:peginterferon alfa-2b