[Ursodeoxycholic acid in the therapy of chronic hepatitis after treatment with interferon]. / L'acido ursodesossicolico nella terapia delle epatiti croniche virali dopo trattamento con interferone.
Minerva Med
; 91(7-8): 141-5, 2000.
Article
em It
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-11155462
ABSTRACT
UNLABELLED Interferon alfa is to day the only therapy of proven benefit for the treatment and control of chronic hepatitis C. Therefore only 25% of patients receive from it a sustained biochemical and serological response; often when the treatment is stopped there is a flare up of ALT and reappearance of HCV-RNA in the serum. The most common schedule is 6 MU t.i w. for twelve months; after this there is no codified treatment for relapse prevention. The aim of this study was to evaluate if ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) administration after a cycle of IFN therapy was able to prevent relapse of the disease. METHODS:
We studied 36 patients whose mean age was 31.5 +/- 5.7 affected by chronic hepatitis C and treated with IFN alpha for one year. Only twenty of them received an end term therapy response and were therefore enrolled in a double blind study with two arms Arm A treated with UDCA 300 mg b. i. d. for twelve months and Arm B treated with placebo. ALT value and HVC-RNA levels were evaluated at baseline, during and after treatment.RESULTS:
Patients treated with UDCA showed a lower percentage of relapse in comparison with patients treated with placebo.CONCLUSIONS:
This effect was probably due to a double mechanism the first of biochemical type because a reduction in the intrahepatic concentration of hydrophobic biliary acids, the second immunological due to a lower expression of HLA class I and II antigens.
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Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Antivirais
/
Ácido Ursodesoxicólico
/
Interferon-alfa
/
Hepatite C Crônica
Tipo de estudo:
Clinical_trials
Limite:
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
Idioma:
It
Revista:
Minerva Med
Ano de publicação:
2000
Tipo de documento:
Article