ASSOCIATION BETWEEN BASELINE PARAMETERS AND END OF TREATMENT RESPONSE TO COMBINATION OF CONVENTIONAL INTERFERON & RIBAVIRIN IN PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC HEPATITIS C

Objective: to study the association between baseline parameters and end of treatment response (etr) to conventional interferon treatment in patients with chronic hepatitis c. methodology: this retrospective analytical study was conducted in gastroenterology department of lady reading hospital peshawar from january 2012 to june 2012. a total of 222 patients with chronic hepatitis c, on combination of conventional interferon and ribavirin therapy were included in the study who reported with etr. various baseline parameters included sex (male vs. female), age (< 40years vs. >40years), weight (<70kg vs. >70kg), viral load (< 800000iu/ml vs. >800000iu/ml) and alt quotient (<3 vs. >3). these variables were compared with etr to see for any significant association. results: two hundred and twenty two patients were included in the study out of which 94(42.3%) were male and 128(57.7%) were females. 121(54.5%) of the patient achieved etr while 101(45.5%) failed to achieve etr. among various variables tested weight <70kg (59% vs. 43%) and alt quotient >3(70% vs. 50%) were significantly associated with etr with a p value of 0.01 and p value of 0.013 respectively while there was no statistically significant association between other parameters and etr. conclusion: high baseline alt and baseline low body weight are significantly associated with better etr. among these weight is a modifiable factor and obese patients should be advised to lose weight before embarking them on anti viral therapy in order to improve their chances of viral clearance.