Evaluation of loading dose of ifn in HCV patients : prospective, uncontrolled study

الملخص EN

Current treatment regimens with either long-term in¬terferon (IFN) immunotherapy or interferon-ribavirin com¬bination achieve a sustained response of 6-21 %.

To im¬prove the efficacy of IFN several strategies have been de¬vised, including the use of higher doses of IFN, prolonged courses or pegylated IFN Some recent reports have sug¬gested that daily administration of IFN in the early phase of therapy (induction dose) may be more efficacious than the classic thrice-weekly regimen.

There is no available data about the combination of induction dose regimen of IFN and ribavirin.

Our objective was to evaluate prospectively the efficacy and safety of a 5mu IFN induction dose in combination with ribavirin in HCV patients.

End treatment response (ETR) was 36.7 % of the 30 patients included in the study, while 81.1 % of responders could remain viral negative for one year after discontinuation of treatment (sustained re¬sponse).

Though responders had higher pretreatment lev¬els of viraemia and ALT, it was still without statistical signficance.

Also, there was no statistical histological dif¬ference between both groups.

There was a significant cor¬relation between response rate and post induction viraemia level (p < 0.05) but no similar relation to post-induction ALT level.

We conclude that induction dose regimen seems to have no effect on ETR but may improve sustained response.

Also, post-induction viral load level is a good predictor for both ET and sustained responses.