Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of rapid viral response (RVR) and influence of various factors on the response rates in chronic hepatitis C infected patients treated with interferon and ribavirin combination therapy. This study was conducted in Isra University Hospital, Hyderabad-Pakistan and Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences, Jamshoro/ Hyderabad, Pakistan, from July 2007 to December 2008. All consecutive adult patients aged between 18 and 65 years who were naïve to interferon-based therapy and fulfilled the following criteria were eligible for this study: anti-HCV antibody, HCV RNA positive, genotype 3, and with elevated ALT (alanine aminotransferase) levels. Statistical analysis was performed using the statistical program for social sciences (SPSS 16.0 for window SPSS Inc: Chicago, IL).This descriptive case series study included 195 consecutive patients of which 113 (57.9%) were male and 82 (42.1%) female. The mean age of the patients was 37.3± 9.62 years. 150 (76.9%) patients were on conventional interferon. Rapid viral response was seen in 167 (85.6%) patients. In univariate analysis, only serum glutamic pyruvic transaminase (SGPT) quotient has shown a statistically significant difference as 96/107 (89.7%) patients with quotient < 2.3 went into RVR as compared to 71/88 (80.6%) patients with >2.3 quotient (p=0.03). In multivariate analysis, SGPT quotient has shown statistical significance with SGPT quotient < 2.3; this indicates that odds ratio of 0.40 (p=0.04) RVR is rapidly becoming a new tool for predicting treatment outcomes in patients with chronic hepatitis C and represents a key opportunity to individualize therapy according to treatment-related viral kinetics

Key words: Hepatitis C, serum glutamic pyruvic transaminase (SGPT), rapid viral response (RVR)