Investigation of antiviral efficacy in patients with chronic hepatitis C originating from a same blood donor in Guizhou Province / 中华传染病杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the antiviral efficacy of standard treatment with interferon (IFN)-α 2b and ribavirin (RBV) in patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC) originating from a same blood donor.Methods The test group consisted of 65 CHC patients originating from a same blood donor,and was treated with IFN-α 2b 3-5 MU every other day in combination with RBV 0.6-1.0 g/d.Meantime,the control group consisted of 32 CHC patients who visited the Department of Infectious Diseases in Qiannan People's Hospital,and was treated with Peg-interferon (PEG-IFN)-α 2a 180 μg every week in combination with RBV 0.6-1.0 g/d.All the patients in the two groups were treated for 48 weeks and followed up for 96 weeks.Assessment indictors included sustained virological response (SVR),early virological response (EVR),end of treatment virological response (ETVR),biochemical response after withdrawal of treatment.Side effects during treatment were also evaluated.Measurement data were analyzed by x2 test.Results In test group,SVR rate was 83.1％ (54/65),EVR rate was 93.8％ (61/65),ETVR rate was 86.2％ (56/65) and biochemical response rate after withdrawal of treatment was 100.0％.In control group,SVR rate was 87.5％ (28/32),EVR rate was 96.9 ％ (31/32),ETVR rate was 90.6 ％ (29/32) and biochemical response rate after withdrawal of treatment was 100.0 ％.SVR rates of the two groups were not significantly different (x2 =0.072,P=0.086).Patients of the two groups were divided into two subgroups according to viral loadhepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA＜1.0 × 106 copy/mL and HCV RNA≥1.0 × 106 copy/mL.SVR rates of patients with low and high viral load in test group were 88.9％ and 54.5％,respectively (x2=7.67,P=0.008),those in control group were 96.0％ and 57.1％,respectively (x2 =4.41,P=0.038).SVR rates were higher in the subgroup of patients with low viral load.Leukopenia and thrombocytopenia were more common in control group than in test group (x2 =9.805,P =0.003 ; x2 =6.643,P=0.009).Conclusion IFN-α 2b and RBV combination therapy has similar antiviral efficacy to that of PEG-IFN-α 2a and RBV combination therapy,and has a lower rate of side effects as well.