Early virological response in hepatitis C patients with insulin resistance

Aim: to determine the frequency of early virological response (evr) in chronic hepatitis c insulin resistant (ir) patients being treated with conventional interferon. methods: this descriptive case series study was conducted in medical outpatient department of university college of medicine & dentistry from december 2013 to june 2015.one hundred and fifty patients with hcv rna detected by pcr and insulin resistance (ir) were included. homeostasis model assessment (homa-ir) was used to determine ir and homa-ir >2 were considered to have ir. evr was defined if hcv rna had not been detected by pcr after 12 weeks of antiviral treatment data was collected on a structured proforma and analyzed using spss 21. chi square and t test were used for categorical and continuous variables respectively. results: among 150 patients,92(61.3%) were male while 58(28.7%) were female. early viral response in the sampled population came out in 55(43.3%) individuals. early viral response was significantly associated with gender and genotype of chronic hepatitis c. conclusion: it is concluded that frequency of early viral response in chronic hepatitis c patients with insulin resistance is quite low (43.3%). hence pegylated interferon should be used preferably. © 2016,lahore medical and dental college. all rights reserved.