Monitoring of serum levels of HCV RNA in early phase of IFN therapy; as a predictive marker of subsequent response

Background/Aims: To determine whether the initial response to interferon (IFN) therapy predicts the long-term response, monitoring of HCV RNA level in the early phase of IFN therapy was performed. Methodology: Sixty-seven patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection were investigated. Patients received 6 MU of human lymphoblastoid IFN daily for 2 weeks and then three times weekly for 22 weeks (total dose; 480MU). These were 34 complete responders (CR) and 33 non-responders (NR). Serum levels of HCV RNA were assayed before therapy and at weeks 1 and 2, using the AMPLICOR HCVMonitor kit. Results: Serum levels of HCV RNA were below the detection limit in 33 (97.1%) of34 CR compared with 13 (39.4%) of 33 NR at week 1, and in 100% of CR compared with 17 (51.5%) ofNR at week 2 (P

Keywords:

• Flaviviridae
• Predictive marker
• Hepatitis C virus
• RNA
• Interferon
• Virus
• Hepacivirus
• Viral disease
• Immunology
• Medicine

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