BACKGROUND: Acute hepatitis C becomes chronic in 50% of cases. Early treatmentseems to be effective in eradicating HCV infection, although no clearrecommendations are available in terms of time of initiation, regimen andduration of therapy. We report a retrospective review of 48 patients with acuteHCV infection between January 2006 and December 2007.PATIENTS AND METHODS: This multicenter retrospective study involved threeInfectious Disease Units in Sicily and was carried out in three stages: (1)Collection of patients data; (2) Selection of patients according to: elevated ALT(at least 5 times above normal values), seroconversion from negative to positive anti-HCV status; (3) Final selection of patients with a minimum of 12 monthsfollow-up.RESULTS: Out of 60 patients with a diagnosis of acute HCV infection, 48 wereeligible for the study. In 13 subjects (52%) of the 25 who were not treated, the disease resolved spontaneously. 23 patients received pegylated interferon inmonotherapy or in combination with ribavirin. 95% achieved a sustainedvirological response (SVR). Of the 22 sustained responders, 17 (70%) negativized HCV RNA within 8 weeks. No difference appeared between patients receivingmonotherapy and those treated with combination therapy. Also, no difference wasobserved, in terms of SVR, between the two different pegylated interferons given for treatment.CONCLUSIONS: The rate of viral clearance was higher in the treated group versusthe untreated one (95% versus 52%). The SVR found in our study population (95%)was comparable to that reported in other studies. The combination with ribavirin did not appear to impact our sustained response rate, although ribavirin appearedto induce a faster normalization of ALT levels.

The use of peginterferon in monotherapy or in combination with ribavirin for the treatment of acute hepatitis C

Nunnari G;CACOPARDO, Bruno Santi
2012-01-01

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Acute hepatitis C becomes chronic in 50% of cases. Early treatmentseems to be effective in eradicating HCV infection, although no clearrecommendations are available in terms of time of initiation, regimen andduration of therapy. We report a retrospective review of 48 patients with acuteHCV infection between January 2006 and December 2007.PATIENTS AND METHODS: This multicenter retrospective study involved threeInfectious Disease Units in Sicily and was carried out in three stages: (1)Collection of patients data; (2) Selection of patients according to: elevated ALT(at least 5 times above normal values), seroconversion from negative to positive anti-HCV status; (3) Final selection of patients with a minimum of 12 monthsfollow-up.RESULTS: Out of 60 patients with a diagnosis of acute HCV infection, 48 wereeligible for the study. In 13 subjects (52%) of the 25 who were not treated, the disease resolved spontaneously. 23 patients received pegylated interferon inmonotherapy or in combination with ribavirin. 95% achieved a sustainedvirological response (SVR). Of the 22 sustained responders, 17 (70%) negativized HCV RNA within 8 weeks. No difference appeared between patients receivingmonotherapy and those treated with combination therapy. Also, no difference wasobserved, in terms of SVR, between the two different pegylated interferons given for treatment.CONCLUSIONS: The rate of viral clearance was higher in the treated group versusthe untreated one (95% versus 52%). The SVR found in our study population (95%)was comparable to that reported in other studies. The combination with ribavirin did not appear to impact our sustained response rate, although ribavirin appearedto induce a faster normalization of ALT levels.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11769/13792
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