Assessment of therapeutic effects on sustained viral response with conventional interferon and ribavirin therapy in patients of chronic hepatitis C virus

Objective: to achieve sustained viral response (svr) with conventional interferon and ribavirin therapy in a period of twenty four weeks an economical perspective for non-affording patients. design: an open labeled study place and duration: sir ganga ram hospital,lahore and sir syed college of medical sciences hospital karachi from dec. 2009 - nov. 2012 methods: confirmed cases of chronic hepatitis c were selected,hcv- rna was done by (roche amplifier switzerland). alt double than (unl) were given conventional interferon and ribavirin 800-1200mg according to body weight for 24 weeks. results: one hundred and sixty confirmed cases of chronic hepatitis c were included in this study,male were 90(56.25%) and female 70(43.75%). response to therapy was seen as after 12 weeks,early virological response (evr) i.e.,undetectable hcv-rna among 135 patients (84.37%),end of treatment response (etr) at week 24 were seen among 130 patients (81.25%) and non-responders with detectable hcv-rna 30(18.75%). 5 patients (2.64%) who showed early virological response developed breakthrough i.e.; pcr was positive at week 24. twenty two patients developed relapse after 6 month of stopping therapy. so overall sustained virological response (svr) was 67.5%. biochemical response among responder in the form of alt/ast normalization was among 145 patients 90.63%. during the 24 weeks treatment adverse effects of the treatment were mainly fever,myalgia,fatigue (100%),epigastric discomfort was seen in 60(37.5%),and diarrhea was seen in 15 patients (9.37%). mild anxiety and depression and irritable behavior along with insomnia were observed among 50 patients (31.25%). hematological abnormalities seen were hb<10gm% 37(23.13%),leucocyte count <4000 105(62.6%) and platelet count <100,000 28(17.5%). conclusion: this study supports that interferon alpha with combination of ribavirin has great efficacy and can achieve svr in patients suffering from chronic hepatitis c virus.