Two-year biochemical, virological, and histological follow-up in patients with chronic hepatitis C responding in a sustained fashion to interferon alfa-2b treatment

✍ Scribed by Olle Reichard; Hans Glaumann; Aril Frydén; Gunnar Norkrans; Robert Schvarcz; Anders Sönnerborg; Zhi-Bing Yun; Ola Weiland

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1995
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 551 KB
• Volume: 21
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0270-9139
• DOI: 10.1002/hep.1840210405

✦ Synopsis

OLLE REICHARD,l HANS GLAUMA",2'3 h I L FRYDEN? GUNNAR NORKRANS,' ROBERT SCHvARCZ,2 ANDERS SONNERBORG,2'6 ZHI-BING YUN,' AND OLA WEILAND2

Fourteen patients with chronic hepatitis C who had a sustained response to a 60-week interferon alfa-2b treatment course were followed, biochemically and virologically, 2 years after treatment cessation. Biopsies were repeated in 12 of 14 for histological and virological evaluation at 2-year follow-up. AU 14 patients had normal serum alanine transaminase (SALT) levels and were negative for hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA in serum during treatment and at short-term follow-up 6 months posttreatment. At 2-year follow-up, 13 patients still had normal ALT levels (<0.6 pkatn for women; <0.8 pkatn for men), 1 a near normal level (0.76 pkatn); all were HCV RNA negative in serum, and 11 of 12 also in the liver. Liver histology improved during treatment and remained stable during the 2-year follow-up. The authors conclude that most sustained responders, who have normal ALT levels and are nonviremic at short-term followup 6 months after interferon treatment, will continue to have a durable long-term response without relapse of the viremia (HEPATOLOGY 1995;21:918-922.) Approximately 15% to 35% of alfa-interferontreated patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection will have a long-term response.'-4 The definition of treatment response has, however, varied. Most authors have used normalization of serum alanine transaminase (SALT) levels alone as a marker of response, whereas we and others have included also the eradication of HCV RNA from Because HCV RNA often is detected in serum of patients with normal Abbreviations: HCV, hepatitis C virus; SALT, serum alanine transaminase.